Bathroom & Pashmina Basket Finished

 

I've finished off a few more of our DIY projects today

First was our Pashmina Basket, 1/2 pink & 1/2 white and tied with a silver ribbon. The basket hasn't arrived yet, but if it doesn't arrive in time, this is a good back up

 

 

 Also finished our Bathroom Baskets

 

 

and the wedding schedule pack for the bridal party. It has a map, driving instructions from Sydney to the Hunter Valley, weekend event list, wedding day timeline and contact numbers 

 

 

 

 

Our last Disney DIY project completed!

 

Just in time our final Disney DIY project completed!  A personalised travel journal and passport cover

 

 

 

 

The travel journal is split up into 2 sections, section one is each family’s trip plan with their itinerary, travel confirmations, day trips and tours, important information and contact numbers.

 

 

  

 

Section 2  is a travel journal, with journal pages for each place & port we visit, a place to keep tickets, receipts and mementos of our trip.

 

 

 

Slipper Basket Finished !

Now that I have finalised the design of our reception stationery, I can finish off lots of projects that have stalled while they waited for the last stationery piece of the project.

First one was our slipper basket

The slippers have all been bagged for a while and all that was missing was the swing tags. The design is inspired by our logo and has the size on one side and a poem on the other "bought new shoes to match your dress and now they're feeling tight? Have not a care just take a pair and you can dance all night".

One last minute change was I found some cute sparkly silver & glitter bags which I will use for the bridal party & my immediate family. As I don’t want them to miss out, I have taken a pair of slippers in their size and will have them placed on their seat at the reception.

I have also finished the welcome party & reception signage

Welcome Sign

Menu's, Bathroom Basket, Pashmina Basket & Candy Bar signs

And for a bit of fun Bride & Groom wedding day timelines!

Candy Bar Goodies

The popcorn bar has now almost fully become a candy bar as it will be a lot easier for me to set up and I can organise the contents well ahead of time. If we had stuck to popcorn only I would have had to make/collect it a day before the wedding and that’s cutting it a bit fine.

I’ve had to promise our jnr. groomsman that we will still have candy popcorn as it’s his favourite and DF wants his fizz wizzes!

Sticking with our colour theme these some of the treats that have already arrived.....pink M&M’s, pink & silver Hershey kisses, marshmallows, chocolate truffles, white & pink rock candy, lolly pops, pink foil choc balls and pink kit kats minis.

 

Welcome Bags – Hunter Reception

I have been planning our welcome bags for months, it’s one of my favourite wedding projects and today with the help of a great mate, we worked all day & finished them finally !!!

I wanted to make a goodie bag filled with treats & all the little things you might have forgotten or would like when arriving at a hotel. Now the tricky part …. quantity & cost ….. we have to make 70 and have a budget of $8.50 per bag MAX ! I had some great ideas of what I could include but things could get expensive quickly, so I had to think of fun & creative ways to fill up the bags on a budget.

I have dropped the canvas bag idea and gable boxes are out too as they are both expensive, instead I have opted for a natural brown bag with a big welcome sticker on the front.

For the contents we called in a favors, changed & swapped out items & bought in bulk to save on the cost but not quality.

1 x Mini bottle of Pink blush champagne $ 4.50

1 x Mini bottle of coke $0.95

2 x plastic wine glasses $free

1 x pkt kettle chips $0.95

1 x Block of Cadbury chocolate $1.40

1 x pkt of Wine charms (DIY)

2 x jars of local hunter valley jam $1.00

1 x pkt of Disney Princess tissues $ 0.10

1 x pkt of Disney Princess tissues $ 0.10

2 x pkts of chewing gum $free

1 x tube of cocoa butter hand crème $free

1 x mini bottle of hand sanitiser $free

1 x local information pack, map, brochures & weekend schedule

The final contents & cost $9.00 per bag

Unfortunately the pictures aren’t that great but I will take more and replace them when I have a chance.

Our Finished Invitations (Home Reception)

Although they have end up quite different to what I had planned in the beginning, instead of rustic wine corks & copper wire they are lace & ribbon, I really like them.

The biggest difference is the outer wrapper as some have chocolate or natural wood grain paper & some have a soft chocolate tissue paper.

A huge thank you goes out to my Dad, who patiently threaded all the peals onto the ribbon wrap around ties for me. A long and boring job and I’m so grateful for all the help xx







Inside







Main Invitation & enclosures







Envelopes



ETA ~ Tuesday 18th January 2011 ~ A pro picture of our invitations

Disney Welcome Bags

 

Another big DIY project down!

I’ve finished our Disney Welcome Bags!!!

I haven’t made them up as such, but I have collected all the items and finished off the DIY projects I wanted to include.  We will assemble them the day before we depart at our WDW hotel and then we have organised to drop them with our on-board coordinator and she will deliver them to everyone’s stateroom prior to their arrival.   

 

Final bags will be DCL ship gift bags and contain the following

# Mickey chocolate shortbread (will pick up at WDW)

# Mickey & Minnie DCL plush

# DIY bear necessities kit

# Bag of chocolatears (will pick up at WDW)

# DIY door hangers

# Mickey & Minnie coin purse

# Ariel magic towel

# DCL magical memories badge

# DFTW disposable camera

# Mini Disney tin (Bambi, Thumper or Dumbo) with Mickey earrings inside

# Magnetic note board & pen (for stateroom doors)

# Disney umbrella

Depending on how full the bags end up I may put some extra lollies or chocolates in them as well as i want each bag to be full to the brim with goodies for everyone.

We have our Invitations supplies !!!!!

We have our Invitations supplies !!!!!

I found two great bargains today at the Stitches & Craft Show, first almost an exact replica of the designer lace I love, only this one was on sale at $1.28 per meter vs. the expensive one at $22.95 per meter. As each invite needed ½ meter the designer lace is out & the new lace is IN.

Then I found a mixed bag with two types of textured A4 paper, one was soft like tissue paper, the other very thick & rough, and only a $1 per sheet. This will be perfect for wrapping the invites, before the go in the envelope.

I decided to cheat and I purchased the chocolate envelopes from cards & pockets for $1.05 each. It saved heaps of time and was cheaper than if I had made the pockets myself.

I found textured thick card stock paper in crème & purchased it in bulk $42 The A7 & C6 envelopes I purchased from an invitation store, 200 in total for $66 I couldn’t find a green that worked with the new design and chose a brushed metallic paper instead. 2 Invitations per A4 sheet = 50 were $38.50

Ribbon – I have heaps of left over pink ribbon from our pink ribbon fundraiser

Pearls – I picked up a bag of pearl beads to thread onto the ribbon (to jazz it up a little) $2.49.

Seals – I used a variety of seals I had left over from other projects, I needed 200 in total and only needed to buy one box for $15.95

Here are all the supplies

The Invitation Quandary

Getting my gorgeous, absolutely perfect invitations (that I had been dreaming about for the last 3 years) vs our budget, was a tricky one. Stationery is my obsession, I love it! and you can never have too much of it in my opinion. The thought of sacrificing my perfect invitations, for the big bad budget man was not something that was happening without a fight, the cake would go first!

So to recap what invitations did I want… chocolate brown textured pockets with 4 inserts & the main invitation panel (all on crème card stock with a sage backing page).

Around the outside of the pocket envelope I was going to wrap a band of textured paper (in a natural shade) and have a split wine cork with twisted copper around it as the centre piece.

To keep them safe I was going to put them in boxes with paper wood shavings. They were going to be gorgeous only problem ….. COST.

A while back I realised that if I was going to pull off two jobs, two weddings & planning an international holiday for our guests, certain things were going to have to go, especially as I don’t have an army of BM’s or helpers in the wings, DIY absolutely every project was out.

So we bit the bullet and got several quotes………….. the best of which came back at $38.45 per invitation !! before postage, so added to this was $5.60 per invite to post, plus 0.55 for the RSVP ……… ahhhhh $44.60 per invite x 100 is definitely NOT in our budget.

So with no choice but to find a cheaper option, I cut the cost per invite in half with 3 things:

1) Doing this project myself was essential

 

2) Invitations had to be mailed in envelopes & not boxes (which reduced the postage cost from a total of $615 to $165.

 

3) The cork & copper wire idea was out and I was planning on just sticking our monogram sticker over the front fold, to keep them closed. Although disappointed I had already had saved over ½ the cost from the best quote.

 

So now I need to collect the supplies:

* Chocolate pocket fold envelopes

* Crème card Stock

* Sage backing card stock

* A7 Envelopes

* C6 envelopes (for the RSVP)

* Ribbon

 

Depending on how much the materials cost, hopefully I will be able to add some sparkle & extra bling.

Bridal Party Newsletters

With so much happening and our bridal party spread far & wide, I am writing up a newsletter to keep everyone included & in the loop on plans & deadlines.

 

 We wanted to include the kids as well so we have made them up their own special newsletter, with information only on things that involve them & what will happen on our wedding day, plus games & puzzles.

 

Disney Newsletter Edition 1

The first edition of our Disney newsletter went out today!

It’s jam packed with not only cruise & wedding details but also lots on the trip in general and the week in WDW.

 

I have been including a travel essential in each mail out so that by the time we depart everyone has a cute little collection of travel essentials to take with them.

The first essential went out with the invitation (we skipped the Save the Date as we were still undecided on location at that time) was the latest edition of the Disney Cruise line guide, this time I am including my DIY luggage tags !!

 

Disney Cruise Pack

Our Disney Wedding Invitation & information pack for our Disney Cruise Guests, it has a DCL book, DVD on the ship; details of ports we will stop in, postcard, pen & the invitation.

 

    
 

 

 

Bridesmaid Shopping Day

We had our first official Bridesmaid’s shopping day to look for dress styles & colours we liked. As the studio we were going to was an hours drive away I made up shopping bags for the girls with the necessities we would need for our road trip.

First was our style card, especially as one of the girls is overseas and couldn’t join us, I wanted to keep all our measurements and choices together so we could refer to them later.

And what trip would be complete without champers!