wedding: mike & jen snapshots

A few years ago, after a friend of mine got married, she told me that she missed the wedding planning and that she wanted to go back and plan it all again. To which I wanted to say: Um, are you crazy, girl?? As much as I loved our wedding day, I'm so happy it was a one-time deal. 

But I love being a wedding guest. I love showing up for weddings, having a few cocktails, enjoying the decor, eating the cake. And having planned a wedding once myself, I really do appreciate how much effort brides and grooms put into their wedding days, especially the decor details.

On Saturday, Tony and I hopped on the bus and spent the evening at Mike and Jen's house celebrating their wedding. The actual ceremony was last month in Dolly Sods, W.V. They got married in a very small ceremony with their siblings as witnesses. They followed it up a couple of weeks later with a reception for the rest of their family back home and now a second reception for their friends in D.C.

One of the decor details that I loved: Jen set mason jars around the house, some with candles in them and some with these bright sunflower arrangements. 

I told you earlier in the summer about the guestbook family tree that Jen and I made for their family reception. (Which I have seen finished, by the way, and it looks fabulous with the fingerprints. I'll post pics once it's framed.) For the D.C. reception, Mike and Jen came up with an equally fabulous, nontraditional guestbook idea: We each filled out personalized Mad Libs about their marriage. 

Closeup shot of the Mad Libs cards:

Another great DIY project: Mike and Jen bought cabinet doors for $1 each at Community Forklift. They painted the frame to match the sunflower yellow theme and used chalkboard paint for the face of the cabinet. Then they wrote the food and drink menus on the signs. Here's the food menu, featuring dinner that was catered by Carmine's in Penn Quarter.  

Here's another nice touch I liked from the wedding: puzzle piece cake toppers. It's a fitting choice because Mike and Jen do puzzles together. (Get it ... FITTING.)

And while I'm posting detail shots from Saturday night, I have to show you a photo of a great flamingo bracelet I wore to the wedding. Tony and I were wandering around our neighborhood Saturday morning and stopped at a garage sale, where I picked this up for $3. I actually bought it to give to my mom because she has a thing for flamingos. But I had to give it a test run first. Pretty, isn't it?

And here's the necklace I wore for the evening, which actually is another garage sale find in D.C. I got this one in the spring for only a dollar (!).

decor: wedding wall

This is one of my favorite spots in our house. It's a collection of family wedding photos, all candid shots. It has all of our favorite people -- parents, grandparents, siblings -- on the happiest days of their lives. I've been scanning and printing old wedding photos over the past several months, and last week I finally got the last photo I needed of my grandparents.

The vows were one of my favorite parts of our wedding. There was something very powerful about standing in front of all of the people in the world who love us and reciting the same words that my parents, my grandparents, aunts, uncles said decades earlier when they started their marriages. I felt like I was becoming a part of a tradition, something bigger than myself. 

I promise to be true to you, in good time and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

I have those same feelings about tradition when I look at this wedding wall. These photos were taken decades and decades apart, but it's comforting to see they were cutting tiered wedding cakes in 1955 and throwing rice in 1978 and doing the you-may-kiss-the-bride thing in 2011. 

Here's a closeup shot of my beautiful grandma and my handsome papa (who never lost any of that hair, by the way), cutting their wedding cake: 

And the first dance for Tony's grandparents: 

Don't they look so happy? I'm glad I chose candid shots for the wall because the emotions are so much more genuine than in posed wedding portraits. 

I got the inspiration for the shelf from this blog post last year. I loved the sleek and modern look. I had my dad make the shelf for me, which was fairly easy. I measured it to be the exact length of my dresser (which is a Hemnes dresser from Ikea), and I painted it to match. We borrowed the bloggers' idea to create a lip on the shelf, which serves the double purposes of (1) ensuring the photos don't slide off, and (2) providing support so the long board doesn't warp over time. 

I had intended to fasten the shelf to the wall with invisible brackets, like the DIYers in the blog post, but then my dad found these gorgeous iron brackets at a flea market, so of course my plans changed. 

Another shot: 

As for styling the shelf, I used all different shapes and thicknesses of frames to put the photos in, which adds visual interest. But I kept the look uniform by using only black frames. Bonus: mismatched photo frames are abundant at thrift stores, and if they're not black, a little paint will do the trick.

<3

From the archives: 

decor: window shades and sheers

life: 'stock the bar' shower

Here's a fabulous idea for a wedding shower. You can tuck it into the recesses of your memory and pull out if you ever find yourself hosting a shower. A Stock the Bar Shower. No sheet sets or mixing bowls at this party. Everyone brings a bottle of liquor as a gift to help the betrothed stock their bar. 

And that's exactly how Tony and I spent Saturday night, celebrating the upcoming nuptials of Mike and Jen, whose wedding is next month.

Isn't that a great idea for a shower theme? Especially if you're throwing a shower for your friends, want to host a co-ed affair, and want to steer clear of a traditional shower.

Drink up indeed! 

project: wedding guestbook

Jen came up with a cute idea for a non-traditional wedding guestbook -- a guest tree, if you will. It's poster of tree trunk and branches, and guests will use green and yellow ink pads to fill in the leaves with their fingerprints. 

So the two of us settled in for some DIY time Sunday afternoon to work on the poster. (Meanwhile, Tony and Mike decided they didn't have much to contribute to the project, so they split and spent the afternoon at Trusty's on Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast.)  

Mike and Jen got the art board at Michaels for about $6, and we used acrylic paints, which dry fast. I made one practice tree and then painted the real thing freehand with the smallest brush I have. 

And here's the finished project, just waiting for the fingerprints! 

They plan to buy a 16-by-20 frame and matting and hang the tree in their house. I think it's a sweet symbol of them combining two families with their marriage. Looking forward to seeing the finished project!

decor: vintage vases

I planted a variety pack of sunflowers in the spring, and they've all grown to a nice mix of sizes. I picked some of the smallest ones and put them in three white vintage bud vases. It's always nice to have fresh flowers in the house, especially ones you grew yourself.

I adore these vases. Before my wedding, my mom and grandma spent months looking around thrift stores and flea markets for these vases. They found hundreds of them, and my mom only spent a quarter or 50 cents on each of them. We ordered cream-colored roses from Sam's Club to put in the vases, and we put groupings of the vases, along with candles, on each of the tables.

The guests took most of the vases home, but I kept a few of them for myself. I have three of them on my mantle, and it's nice to incorporate a piece of our wedding into our decor.

And how's this for crazy. Tony and I were at an antique store in Maryland a few weeks ago, and I saw one of these vases -- for $13!

project: birthday cards

Tony and I grew up in Ohio, but we've chosen D.C. to be our adopted hometown. When you move to a new city without your family, it's so important that you have good friends.

Growing up, my friends were the kids I went to school with, and in college I made friends with the kids in my journalism classes and the ones I worked with at the student newspaper. But once you're in the working world -- and especially if you move to a new city -- you have to be more creative. Maybe you make friends with your coworkers, although that can be complicated if things go sour. Maybe you join a bocce ball team or befriend your neighbors or rekindle a childhood friendship if you both happen to have moved to the same city.

Looking for new couple friends is like dating. Either you click or you don't. Tony and I once went out to dinner on a double date, and when the check came, the husband calculated, to the penny, what portion of the tax we each owed. There was no second double date.

But we clicked with Camille and Matt. We even have a meet-cute. It was 2009. Tony and I were newly engaged, and we were taking pre-cana classes at St. Peter's on the Hill. You have to take these classes if you get married in a Catholic church. Camille and Matt, who were engaged too, were in the class with us. We bonded over an extremely graphic explanation of how to execute natural family planning.

Tony and I got married around the same time Camille and Matt did, and we each bought our houses (on Capitol Hill for us, in Shirlington for them) around the same time, too.

We're heading out to Shirlington tonight for a combined birthday celebration for Camille and Matt. I very rarely find Hallmark cards that capture my oddball sense of humor, so (when I have time) I make birthday cards for my family and friends. I have a stockpile of blank cards, and I decorate them with photos I find in magazines and newspapers.

For Camille (because we share a desire of someday wanting to raise chickens):

For Matt (because he loves dogs -- and I just thought this photo is ridiculous):