Sprout Graphics

Moving on Up

2010-11-13T09:01:00.000-08:00

I decided it was time to make the switch. Blogger has been great to me, but I just couldn't find my groove design-wise. I wanted the larger functionality of wordpress, and also wanted to reinvent things a little. Sprout Graphics is my graphic design business, and my blog has outgrown that immensely. So, I came up with a new name for my reinvented blog.

Killer b. Design. If you're a follower (and that means I love you!), please switch your readers over to http://killerbdesign.wordpress.com/. I'm still hashing out the look, but at least now the name isn't quite so confusing. It's all about design, whether it's graphics, decor, furniture, or the million other DIY projects I have going on. So, a big thank you for following me this far, and I hope you make the switch with me!

See You Around

2010-11-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

Well, hive, it's about that time. I had a blast planning my wedding with you, reliving the big day with the best photos ever, and sharing a few good projects that every bride can pull off post wedding. I'm not going to say this is my final goodbye, since I plan to pop in every now and then with the Bee Series that are going on, and perhaps an anniversary post or two. I want to thank all of you for all the great advice, support, and bee love you've shared with me over the past six months. It's been wonderful, absolutely wonderful.

For those of you who love nesting, more DIY projects, and taking on a building project (or 10), come take a peek at my revamped blog, Killer b. I'd love to see you around!

All my love, Sand Dollar.

You Guys, I'm Famous!!

2010-11-11T11:33:00.000-08:00

Holy Cannoli, it's like Christmas on cocaine! My home was just featured on Knock Off Wood's website, Ana-White.com. Words cannot express just how effin' excited I am right now. I'm practically shaking! It's euphoric enough to build these projects anyway, but to be featured on the main site by the goddess herself, be still my beating heart. Check out the post here for all the DIY love.

Ana-White.com - Craftroom Closet

I'll just be swooning in the corner.

Making a Gallery

2010-11-10T12:04:00.000-08:00

I don't know about you, but I love me a good gallery. I fell in love with the willy-nilly variety from design blogs and magazines, and knew I had to have one of my own. Here's a little sneak peek of the one I made just above my piano.

So how do you get an entire gallery wall for less than 100 bucks?

Step 1: If you got a disk of images from your photog, go ahead and print them out. I chose Walgreens, because retailmenot.com had a great coupon offering $10 off your order. So, I received six 8x10's and eight 5x7's for $25. Plus, they were ready in 30 minutes, and I even placed my order online! Score! You need to be sure to check your image resolution, you never want to go below 250 dpi for a printed image. I'm able to enlarge mine up to 16x20, but most print places have to order out for poster sizes (usually anything 11x14 and up) and I didn't want to wait.

Step 2: Buy frames on a 50% off sale at Hobby Lobby. Each 8x10 was $3 with the discount, and my 11x14's were $5. So if you're keeping count, that brings the frame total to $54. I chose to size up the frames so I could add matting.

Step 3: Add your mats. Again, I waited for a 50% off day for pre-cut mats. Seriously, I am devoted to Hobby Lobby because of all these deals. It's the bomb! The 5x7's were $1 each, and 8x10's $2 each. So that's $20 for mats.

Step 4: This one's optional. I had one can of white spraypaint at home already, and picked up another at Wal-Mart for about a buck. I wanted to spray the black metal frames white to match the mats and put the emphasis on the photos. Here's how each one looks.

Pretty nifty, eh? Very professional, I think. I mentioned I was a fan of the random arrangements, so here's how I set mine up.

That's a Halloween mummy bowl sitting on a console behind our couch, not a UFO. Promise!

I cut out computer paper to match each frame size, and taped them to the wall until I was happy with the arrangement. Then, I nailed through each sheet of paper, pulled it off the wall and added the frame. Voila! Instant gallery goodness. This way you can play around with your setup without having a million nail holes in your wall. I hung them all before we were able to move my piano back to my house, and luckily it barely fit beneath all the photos. Whew! Moving them all up would have been a PITA.

So there you have it, an easy way to assemble and set up your very own gallery of wedding photos, all for under a hundred dollars.

How do you plan to display your wedding photos? Will you frame them, or come up with something else?

Canvas Pop

2010-11-09T12:12:00.000-08:00

About a million years ago, I won a prize from Apartment Therapy for a Canvas Pop $25 coupon. The one and only time I won a blog prize, hooray! Maybe someday I'll win some more. But I digress.

Once I figured out a size I could afford, 8x10 (I needed to pay an additional $16 for taxes and S&H), the hard part was deciding on an image. I played around with a few, and finally decided on a ring shot I took at the inn we stayed at just after he proposed. Now, 8 months after I received my canvas, I mounted it on a spare piece of MDF.

I think I've decided to dedicate my gallery ledges to a wedding display. I got carried away putting things up on them, and now it just looks all jumbled. So it's time to edit and see what I come up with!

A Pleasant Surprise

2010-11-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

Getting an album made can be one of the most daunting tasks post-planning. Which company do I choose? What layout? Paper quality, finish, cover stock? It's overwhelming! As quickly as I wanted to wrap up the whole wedding process (as is evident from my recap schedule, I like to wrap things up in a very neat package as soon as they're done) but I didn't want to become overwhelmed with dedicating so much time to an album. Especially after I had spent so much time editing and creating a wedding DVD. So, I decided to create a brag book, with blurb.

In short, a brag book is a small bound book printed with most of your wedding pictures, in a single-photo-per-page layout. It's normally also given as a gift to parents so they can easily tote it around and show the photos to all their friends, hence the name Brag Book. I chose the 7x7 square from Blurb, and for just under $35 (after finding a free shipping coupon) I received a 165 page book with the premium paper upgrade. I chose Blurb simply because I had used it before, and have always been really happy with the results. About a week later, I received my book.

Front:

Back:

Spine:

I used their software, Bookify, to layout my pages. I love that you can use custom fonts on your covers and spine, I was able to use the ones from all of our stationery! They also give you a ton of layout options. I know I mentioned that most are a single photo on each page, but for a few pages I had 2-4 photos that covered the same kind of theme. Here's a couple of snapshots of the interior.

The color and quality is amazing. And as I alluded to the title of this post, I had a pleasant surprise once I looked through it. Seeing this cute little book, I no longer wanted an album! I thought I had perfectly summed up our wedding in the pages provided, from the getting-ready photos to the exit. I got my fix for larger images through printing photos to frame (which is what my next post is all about), so I don't feel like this one is lacking in any way. I have my wedding album!

Have you chosen what kind of album you'll have post-wedding? Did your photographer include it in your package, or did you choose an online company?

Piano Day

2010-11-07T08:08:00.000-08:00

My piano has been in storage at my parents' home since June of last year. Yeah, it's been a loooong time. I've missed it a lot, sometimes you just need the old rustic resonance, over an electronic keyboard. So today, the mister and I rented a UHaul trailer to take my massive beast of an upright piano, as well as a giant jukebox my father is giving us, from San Marcos to Lake Jackson. This will be an undertaking.

The piano in question in my Dallas apartment

See? It's a stout piece of furniture. I just hope we can figure out how to unload the thing once we get there...

Family Pictures

2010-11-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

My mom really loves to take family photos every year in November, so she can make Christmas cards. So this year, we packed up our pups and drove down to San Marcos, to fill a weekend with deer hunting, furniture moving, furniture building, and picture taking. The mister was really just concerned that the photos ended with enough time for him to hit up his deer blind.

Getting us all organized.

Dogs not paying attention...

Would be good, if pups weren't cut out!

Almost there...

As good as it's gonna get!

We took them on my parents' land, on a patch of driveway (it's about 1/4 mile long!). We used my Canon Rebel, and had a friend snap the shot. Only in Texas will you find 70+ degree temperatures in November. At least it's getting a bit brisk in the mornings!

Another Yudu Test

2010-11-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

Like many other crafty bloggers out there, I bought the Yudu screenprinting machine. After quite a few t-shirt runs (I sold about 500+, so more than enough to cover the cost of the machine and supplies) I was burnt out on 200 shirt runs per screen. Burning the screens was particularly difficult for me, I never got the hang of it. I would constantly bubble, chip, or ruin the emulsion. Dozens of prints were ruined. So, I gave up. That is, until I read online about using cardstock and spray adhesive to create an "emulsion" on a screen. So, I gave it a shot.

Step 1: Print your image out on cardstock. Cut out with a craft knife. Spray adhesive on the back, and adhere it to your screen.

(The red is a stain from my wedding Save the Dates. Luckily I'll never have this problem again! ;)

Step 2: Use packing or scotch tape (or any kind of tape, really) and tape around your edges. This keeps the ink from spreading onto unprotected areas. Ink your screen, and squegee the ink across the image.

(things are looking good so far!)

Step 3: Lift up the top of the press, and reveal your print!

(woohoo! A perfect print! I rarely had these before with Yudu emulsions)

I tested out a few prints with the screen I made, to ensure that I can get a few passes with cardstock. I chose cardstock over other papers because I thought it would be thick enough not to bleed through with a lot of ink. Luckily, I was right! I'm so crazy excited about this, it opens up a whole new world of screenprinting to me. Now, I can't get intricate details like small text with this method, but I can get large words and images to print clearly, which was extremely difficult before. And another plus? No special cleanup! I no longer need the special emulsion remover to get that nasty green screen off, which would leave residue and block up my screens most of the time anyway. I have three screens, and I can maybe use about 20% of each of them due to blockages.

Here's what I was greeted with once I peeled off the cardstock.

A perfect selection of ink. Gorgeous. I cleaned the ink off with water, then used my steel wool that was already slightly soapy to get the rest of the spray adhesive off. In about 15 seconds of cleanup, I have a perfectly reusable screen! HOORAY! Now just to get to the projects when I get to use my new method. My first idea up is on some painted wooden boards, I'll be sure to post it once I do it!

Sneak Peek

2010-11-04T08:38:00.000-07:00

I've got a few new tricks up my sleeve. With my new found love of carpentry, I've decided to combine it with my long-lived love of crafting and DIY. Here's what I've been working on all morning:

Waiting for paint to dry really is the worst thing ever. It's been raining for days, and the humidity is awful. It's taking over an hour for each layer to dry to the touch, so this really has been a day-long project. I can't wait to get to the fun part and post the finished product!

Knocked Off: Simple Daybed

2010-11-03T12:26:00.000-07:00

It's been months since I posted my teaser pictures from the Simple Daybed I built with my brand new sister-in-law (who insists it's just "sister", isn't that sweet?!). We had a lot of difficulty building it, mostly because it was the first thing I was building without the mister, who does a lot of the grunt work. It turns out, building with heavy lumber like this is really hard without the right tools. We broke about 5 drill bits, had to deal with the creepy Lowe's dude who cut our pieces all off, and had to call her dad at least 3 times to help us out with stripped screws (which meant the grinder had to come to our rescue!). But girl power prevailed, and we came out with this:

The 1x6 facing boards were the only new wood on the bed, everything else was salvaged, including the rails (not shown in this image). I think this is the last "nice" furniture build I'll do with salvaged wood. A lot of it is warped, beat-up, and cracks really easily, even when pre-drilled. I think I'll just have to save the salvage for projects that are supposed to look weathered. Though the price has been right, and I can't complain. I finally sanded, painted, and put on all the bedding. I think it came out quite nice, as good as it could get given the circumstances! My boxer Rory was snoozing on it, and generally can't be moved once she gets into sack-of-potatoes mode.

See? Warped 2x4's left gaps. As did the too-short cuts on the facings. But you can't really see it unless you're really looking over the bed.

It cost $60 for the new lumber, and the screws. I think I kind of got the shaft on this one, I'm not really sure how it came out to be so much. Maybe I bought other stuff with it at the time? I can't remember, only how much I paid on that day. The bedding was all handmade as well, I'm smitten with Free Spirit's Deer Valley fabric. It complements the color on the walls so well. It's also reversible, the bottom has the striped fabric from the pillows, and the pillows have the deer fabric on the back, should I ever want to switch things up.

So there it is, my first lone build. I had to have the mister come in and make it more sturdy, we added cross bracing, tightened some screws and added a few more. Now it's solid as a rock!

It's All in the Framing

2010-11-02T20:25:00.000-07:00

While stumbling around on some wedding blogs, I came across the cutest image. It was a framed wedding invitation, but there was something new added to it. The invite was matted, and written on the mat were words used from the ceremony. I was so inspired, I had to do it myself the week I got back from our honeymoon! I headed straight over to Hobby Lobby to take advantage of their half price frames, and found a couple of mats (I needed to do one for myself and one as a gift to Bridesmaid Stacie, who's invites I designed and then spent a harrowing weekend making and assembling pocket folds with her) and bought a handful of colored pens. Here's my quite lovely result.

Instead of words used from the ceremony, I chose the songs we walked down the aisle to (The Day Before You, for Stacie, and Bring It on Home, for me). She loved her gift, and I love displaying mine in my home. I built myself some gallery shelves for 10 bucks each (I built the desk too, for about 20 bucks) to display a few wedding photos and my invite. I also tossed a couple of the bridesmaid bouquets inside some of my centerpiece cans.

Love it! Now to just build myself a new chair ;)

Do you plan to display your wedding invitation? How did you do it?

Somewhere Down in Texas: Video Stars

2010-11-01T13:56:00.000-07:00

I mentioned before that we would be DIYing our wedding video. Bridesmaid Stacie's sweet husband Kurt was awesome enough to volunteer to be our videographer. We had a tripod, an HD camera my mom gifted me (for her baby Sand Dollars she is convinced will be along asap) and a Macbook to get it done. I used iMovieHD to edit everything, and burned a super cute DVD using iDVD. Seriously, it's awesome! We have chapters and music and menus, and it's mega cool!

I was a little worried that it would turn out to be super cheesy, but it really is pretty cute! Yes, it looks like a home video. No, it doesn't make it any less awesome in my eyes. My mom was right when she said I'd want to see those little moments again. I love that I literally bounced up and down to dance with my friend Christian during the dollar dance. I love hearing our ceremony, watching us cut cake, the whole shebang. I edited a "full-length" video that's 30 minutes long, and includes the entire aisle walking, ceremony, dances and tosses. For some reason we didn't get any of us driving away, but that's ok. Here I'm going to share my 7 minute highlight video, so you can see just how country-chic we cowboys kick it down here. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T18:56:00.000-07:00

We had one trick or treater. Sad day. We waited all night, and even lined our driveway in leftover mason jar candles from the wedding, only to have one single kiddo! At least the mister carved a stellar pumpkin.

I believe that's an owl under a crescent moon. And of course, our family initial ;) And though I only got as festive as to wear black tank under an orange blouse with jeans, we had a great time dressing up our pups in costumes.

A shark

A dragon

A cute duo.

Hope your Halloween is safe and happy!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Going Going Gone!

2010-10-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time. Time to wrap up my recaps with our big exit. I polled the hive to help me decide between my scooter and Mr. SD's mud-hoggin' Suzuki Samuri. Well, the hive has spoken!

(photo by Scott V)

My mom made the adorable little sign on her cricut, and laminated it just in case of rain. That icky rope is a remnant from our earlier preparations, where we literally had to rope off between each huge support beam to keep annoying soccer families out. When I say these people were rude, I mean, they were RUDE! One woman hounded me for twenty minutes about where I bought my lanterns, which at the time I had absolutely no recollection of which website I used or how much they were per lantern. Another rude-ass family was just chilling on the stage when we were trying to line up the candles on it, and when I asked them to move, a middle aged woman asked what we were setting up for. I told her it was a wedding (not mentioning I was the bride). She looked at me skeptically and said "Why? It's going to be awful, you're all going to get poured on and die in this humidity." Yeah, thanks, Little Miss Sunshine, way to stress out a bride EVEN MORE on her WEDDING DAY! Old crone. Anyway, water under the bridge. We roped them off and kicked them out and good riddance I say. So much for the legendary hospitality of Texans!

(photo by Scott V)

I bought a giant tub of birdseed for ten bucks at Wal Mart a few days prior. I have no idea how everybody got some or who passed it out, but having them in the same cups as the drinks weren't a brilliant idea. One girl came up to me later, apologizing profusely, because she accidentally tossed her beer on us instead of the seeds! Luckily she was too drunk to have great aim ;)

(photo by Scott V)

Off we go! We decided to do a little lap around the block and soak in all this wedding business. And I'm soooo glad we did! It was the first time we'd seen the pavilion lit up from afar, and it was ridiculously impressive. I was so happy after that, knowing that at least everything was decorated well. We had a very fun wedding, the food was delicious, the cake was stunning, and there wasn't anything at all I could shake a stick at. I have great pictures, celebrated with wonderful friends, and can't believe the generosity of everybody in our lives who helped us pull it all together. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to all you ladies in the hive who have encouraged me with your wonderful comments and suggestions along the way. It's been an amazing experience!

Don't cry yet, my dearies, this isn't my last post. I still have a lot in store for you, with all these post-wedding projects (like my video, and prints, and so much more!) Can't wait to share it all with you, because as you may have already figured out, the wedding doesn't end after the reception. There's still more to be done!

Knocked Off: Parsons Desk

2010-10-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

The last time I posted about my guestroom closet slash office, my desk looked like this:

A clunky old piece of furniture original to the house. It was actually built in to that section, with these hideous cubbies that made for an unattractive nook. We knocked out the built in cabinet, and I added the gallery ledges. I'd thought that I could live with just painting the desk and adding some new hardware. Then I saw this:

(Ana-White.com)

I had to have it. The sleek lines matched perfectly with those ledges, and I was so in love with the look. I shortened it a little in length from 60" to 50", so it would fit well in my space. I built it entirely by myself, even cutting the mdf down to size with my table saw. I think it turned out really well!

It looks so cute! The old desk had a glass top that I'm going to cut down. There's also some fabric that I'd like to make a sort of runner out of, then I can change out the patterns whenever I need a color update. I have another mini office update coming up, so stay tuned!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Spaghetti Arms

2010-10-28T09:43:00.000-07:00

We started wrapping up the night with the traditional garter and bouquet toss. Originally I'd wanted to attach gift cards to both so the competition would be more exciting, but in all the hustle and bustle getting things ready this idea fell through the cracks. Which was bad news bears, because nobody even tried to catch either! Mega lame. Hey, at least the bench got to make its big debut! I decided to get a little saucy with it

(photo by Scott V.)

We lined up all the fellas, and then Mr. SD stretched that sucker out to make it fly.

(photo by Scott V.)

So um, yeah...it didn't go far at all. It totally wimped out like, 2 feet from my groom. Here he is demonstrating the enthusiasm he expected from his men.

(photo by Scott V.)

That's ok. At least his little brother stepped out to pick it up, though I'd hate to know what that means for the other fellas. They have a loooooong time to wait if the 13 year old is next up to get married! Though that may be alright with them ;)

(photo by Scott V.)

Now it's my turn. I borrowed a bridesmaid bouquet so mine wouldn't get all rumpled.

(photo by Scott V.)

Argh! Mine wouldn't fly either! It was way too light, kind of like trying to throw tissue paper. No bueno. At least one lovely lady decided to go out on a limb and pick it up, I hear she and her fella have been together for a bit!

So overall, a somewhat disappointing showing from the Sand Dollars. We couldn't even make it to our crew! But, we got our photo ops, and it was worth it in the end. So, as much fun as this whole party has been, now it's time to roll out!

Knocked Off: Apothecary Cabinet

2010-10-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

So, we bought a new tv. As in, a huge 55" monster tv. If you recall, we had our old 32" model chillin' on a vintage sewing table that came with the house.

Obviously, not the ideal setup for a much larger tv. We had to set it up there temporarily, and it overhung the sides about 5" each way. So, I used the mdf generously donated by a friend, and went to work!

The drawers fit like a glove, as did the cabinet doors. I still had a bit of work to do, getting everything prepped to paint, but overall it was looking good. I learned a fantastic tip online about mdf edges. If you smear a little drywall compound on with your finger (I used DAP), it gives a smooth, clean edge just like a sanded surface. Brilliant! I painted the whole thing brown, brushed on a weathering texture gel, and topped it with red door paint. I love the look.

I have really low-lighting in my house right now for some reason, hence the garish hue it's displaying. It's much darker and more subtle in person. I used a gel stain for the top boards, the same we used on our Farmhouse Table. I just wiped on and immediately wiped off to give it a lighter tone.

I need to clean and retouch my floor paint! The doors and drawers also need a little lubricating wax on the edges. Once the weight and paint was applied, they fit a little tighter than their raw version. So you have to wiggle 'em to get anything open. I think a little lube will fix that right up ;) Overall, I'm really happy with the build, and even happier with the $40 price tag. That includes the paint and hardware. Mind you, the sheets of mdf were free, and I used about 3-4, including the drawers. I decided to forgo the false fronts, making it a not-so-apothecary cabinet. I think the look is perfect for our room!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Gettin' Down

2010-10-26T16:45:00.000-07:00

Ok, we're now back on track, whew! Once we had taken all the pretty pretty pictures, I swapped out dresses and donned my cute little ponytail. We were introduced for the first time as Mr. and Mrs!

(photo by Scott V.)

Confession: This was hands down the most awkward part of the day. People kind of clapped, a little bit, but not really. Pretty much the only thing they were thinking about was the food. We didn't know what to do, so basically we just wandered out into the middle of the space and waved like beauty queens. Then I yelled, "Let's eat!" to which nobody responded. Awk-ward... But then I was distracted by plates of yummy brisket and potato salad and beans and corn and YUM! For some reason we have no pictures of this, but it's probably a good thing, as I gorged myself silly. I got thirds, guys. And I'm proud of it!

(photo by Scott V.)

How stunning is this image? Our party was so lit up! Of course, this gives you a good look at how empty things were, too. Like I said earlier, we had over 150 RSVP, and maybe about 75-100 tops actually show up. I want to punch the skippers in the face, because they suck. Yes, you, guest who RSVP'd yes so I'd buy you dinner and save you a seat and have beer and cups and forks and plates for you and then you DIDN'T EVEN SHOW UP, you suck, majorly. So please, people, be nice to your host and let them know if you're coming by the date requested, and then stick to your decision. End of public service announcement.

A few other good tips for you brides to be:

1. Hydrate. You're totally going to need it for all your fun dancing times, and talking to all your guests.

(photo by Scott V.)

2. Laugh with your bridesmaids, and enjoy yourself with your friends. Yes, you need to talk to Aunt Sally and meet Uncle Jim. But frankly, this is your party, and everyone else will enjoy themselves more if they see you're having a good time too!

(photo by Scott V.)

3. Take lots of photos with said friends and guests. Because your photographer will see you doing this and take cute pictures.

(photo by Scott V.)

Once we finished eating, cut the cake and did our first dances, my band dudes got down to business.

(photo by Scott V.)

As did all the guests!

(photos by Scott V.)

Another PSA for you. For some reason, the groomsmen felt it was A-OK to change into more, shall we say, "comfortable" clothing for the reception, as if perhaps pictures wouldn't be taken of this part? I'm not too sure. But as Bridesmaid Nikki called him, "Redneck Cutoff Guy" was actually a groomsman. Yes, ladies, and he wore this to dance with me during the dollar dance. I told him in punishment we would publicly mock him, so please, mock away! And don't let yourself get too ruffled by these sorts of things, because frankly, most men are idiots and will call you a Bridezilla if you protest. So I just let it fly, and laughed at him the rest of the night. Which, alas, is ending soon! The fun doesn't stop here, though, we still have the tosses to do!

Sick.

2010-10-25T10:57:00.000-07:00

I have strep. Ew. Luckily I caught it early enough that the antibiotics are already kicking in and killing the nasty crap in my throat. Can you believe that I started building this just before I knew I was infected?

It's the start of the Apothecary Cabinet from Ana White, to support our brand new 55" tv the mister bought with his first big paycheck. It's nice having him back on the job and out of school. Now, I'm going to take another horse pill and take a nap. I'll post the final product soon!

Oh, and p.s., happy one month wedding anniversary Jacob!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Money Shots

2010-10-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

You remember all that great light we had for our ceremony? Well, in case you don't, it looked a little like this:

(Photo by Scott V.)

I know formals can be pretty boring, but in my case, I actually love them! Those shadows are just so epic, and the sun behind the guys reminds me of a very dramatic dvd cover ;)

(Photo by Scott V.)

We started doing a couple of artistic shots after the very generic lineup. I like to call this one, "Demanding Diva"

(Photo by Scott V.)

I'm not too sure what was going on here, but apparently everyone is looking to me for direction. It makes me giggle. So, I commanded them to JUMP!

(Photo by Scott V.)

Check out the height Stacie got on the far right. She rocks my world. I kind of wish my dress didn't blow up like a balloon, but whatevs. Perhaps, if you're planning your own jump shot in a chiffon dress, you should kick your legs up like some of these gals are doing. I don't know, I'm just an awkward jumper. Now, to blaze through these next few, we have some family shots. I think Mr. SD resembles his dad quite a bit, especially after he accumulates the same amount of freckles from working in the sun for 30 years.

(Photo by Scott V.)

His parents, left, and mine, right. My dad hates photos, if you didn't notice!

(Photo by Scott V.)

His mom and stepdad, with his sisters.

(Photo by Scott V.)

His dad and stepmom, and little brother and sister. I find it hilarious that they all look so different! And that his little brother is gonna be a beast, while he's a little shorty like me ;)

(Photo by Scott V.)

Gradma Bobbie, who is the coolest lady in town. She gave us her house to rent, and is basically just kickass. She did a lot of raising for Jacob, he lived with her a good many years. I love that we're starting out in a home with so many memories.

(Photo by Scott V.)

My parents and sister. And now, for my favorite series of the day. Me and my sweet little ring bearer Taylor, aka T-bone, the T-man, and just T.

(Photo by Scott V.)

He calls me his Tante Brooke (he was born in Germany while his parents lived there). He's basically the coolest cat around. I love him times a million, and he still calls his parents guest room "Brooke's Room" from when I lived there for a few months (reminder: his mom is my boss of sorts, and was our awesome event coordinator). This one is also a keeper for the albums.

(Photo by Scott V.)

Mr. SD and his sweet sisters. His family loves this shot. Basically Mr. SD is like some kind of Prince in his family, and they all think he's the greatest. I guess I'm lucky I snagged me a royal! :)

So there you have it, some pretty fun formals. They're colorful, oozing with good light and shadows, and aren't stuffy at all. Now I'll fast forward back to the reception, where the party is just getting started!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Dancin' Shoes

2010-10-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

(photo by Scott V.)

After we cut the cake and chowed down on desserts, it was time to work off all those sweets with a little dance action. We cued up the music to Josh Abbot's "She's Like Texas", and hit the ground two-steppin!

(photo by Scott V.)

I'd like to take a moment and gush on my photographer for another quick minute. If you recall, the lighting for the ceremony and group shots was warm and yellow and dreamy. You can tell, once the sun set, the overhead lights in the pavilion were harsh and dramatic. I love that he was able to master both conditions, and really produce great shots in completely opposing light conditions. I'd definitely recommend checking your photographer's work to be sure that they can take great shots in any lighting conditions, because with super contrasting, low-light situations as this, you can really get hit-or-miss photos if they don't know what they're doing. Just a little advice before you plunk down that credit card!

(photo by Scott V.)

This one's another runner up for favorite shot of the day. I've totally already gone and blown it up and framed it for my house! It's so sweet, and neither of us are making awkward kiss faces. Definitely a keeper. And if you've done any good country dancing, you know that you spin around, a lot! This is the same way we took a snapshot to create our cute cake-topper.

(photo by Scott V.)

Once we finished showing off (not really, we're pretty average in the two-stepping world), we cajoled our parents onto the dance floor with Cory Morrow's "Always and Forever".

(photo by Scott V.)

Yay, parents! Now that we finished with the whole "all eyes on us" parts of the reception, it was time to kick it into gear and have a blast with our friends! We chose two songs for the Dollar Dance, Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel" and "A Lotta Boot Left to Fill" by Eric church. I love these pictures, and we got some great video of it as well (which I finally finished editing, so we'll have a cute highlight clip coming up soon!)

(photo by Scott V.)

Another big favorite. Bridesmaid Nikki lived just down the block from me in Dallas when I first met Mr. SD. We went to high school together, and found out after I'd moved to my apartment that not only did we live in the same city, we lived right down the street from each other! Our friendship kicked into high gear, and she was always there for me and the mister when our relationship just started out. I love that she loves Mr. SD, and he feels the same way. It just doesn't get any better than that! While he danced away with one of my besties, I hit the floor with Destructo-boy, Blake, who happens to be a fabulous dancer. We did the "twisty-bobcat-pretzel", as Sandra Bullock would say!

(all photos by Scott V.)

Not gonna lie, I totally study the film so I can master this dance move on my own! I felt like a really jazzy dancer while he was whirling me around the floor. It's one of the moves in country-swing-dancing, which if you've never seen, you definitely need to check it out on You Tube! It's crazy fun. We had such a great time kicking-off the dancing portion of the reception with our crew. Speaking of crew, I completely forgot! Tune in next time for a little rewind back to the end of the ceremony, when we took some killer bridal party shots!

Knocked Off: Gallery Ledges

2010-10-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

As you may have been able to tell by now, I've been on a bit of a building spree. And it's only about to get worse, as I have a half built apothecary cabinet and Parson's desk on my back porch! But that's not what today is about. Today, it's all about Ana's Ten Dollar Gallery Ledges!

(photo from Ana-White.com)

I had the perfect little nook in mind for these, just above my desk in our guest bedroom.

See what I mean? It was the perfect spot! It was practically crying out to me to add a little DIY love. I'm going to replace that desk with the one I'm building, so long as it turns out looking fabulous (which it should, I'm really taking my time on it). If it doesn't, I plan to paint that one a fun bright color to make it more interesting. And just in case you were wondering what the whole setup looks like:

I finally cleaned and organized my craft supplies! So our guest room if really shaping up now. I want to try my hand at reupholstering soon with that glider, and we want to turn that old TV into a fishtank, and pop a flatscreen on top. How fun is that? And of course, get rid of the mister's ugly work shirts. But it's getting there.

Here's a little closeup. My 4' shelves are a bit shorter than Ana's, and I chose nicer wood. So though they were half-size, they were still $10 each. Not too bad, considering Pottery Barn wants to charge you $55 EACH! No thank you, guys. I prefer a simple 2 hour project with a handful of screws and nails and a little elbow grease.

I had a great time picking stuff to throw on them, it will need a little editing soon though, I think I got a bit carried away! But I love how organized my desk is now, everything looks so neat and clean. The perfect environment for getting a little work done. Plus, I love that these are the base for those iconic wine ledges I've been wanting for forever. I think that's another project soon to come up on my radar!

Knocked Off: My Guest Bench

2010-10-21T18:57:00.000-07:00

When I decided to do a guestbook bench for my wedding, I never expected how happy I'd be with the end result. It's so personal, so sentimental that I fall more in love with it every time I lay eyes on it. Let's bring it back to the beginning, when I enlisted my bridesmaids to join me in a group girl-power project.

After having all the gals lend a hand, I sanded, painted, and then drew on my design to make it wedding official. Here it is in action on the big day.

(photo by Scott V.)

It still served it's seating purposes too, when it was time to toss the garter.

(photo by Scott V.)

I sealed the top with Mod Podge, my go-to preservative. You can't ever go wrong with the 'podge, guys! It's glossy smooth, and safely preserves all my sweet messages. My favorite is from Bridesmaid Stacie, "We hope this bench sees the butts of many friends and is witness to tons of amazing memories!" I built it intending to place our Rustic Bench at the foot of our Farmhouse Bed, and it's the perfect addition to our bedroom.

So, for the cost of roughly $20 (including the pens to sign it in), a lot of elbow grease from my favorite ladies, and a little spit and polish with my design work, we have a family heirloom. I want to give a HUGE shout out to Ana White of Ana-White.com who provides all these plans for free (seriously, go check it out!) and empowers women and families everywhere to build for yourselves. I love my bench, and am so SO glad you all encouraged me to choose it for my guestbook!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Sugar High

2010-10-20T08:16:00.000-07:00

(photo by Scott V.)

One of my favorite parts of any wedding is the dessert. I love checking out the cake, and seeing what other kinds of goodies we have in store for us. My own wedding was no exception. In fact, the first thing I did after we cut the cake was make myself a s'more, then go back for another slice of cake! It's a win-win, you know.

(photo by Scott V.)

First we had to light that sucker. Nothing says romance like a propane blow-torch, right? In fact, that cutie in orange was the man responsible for our carved out tree heart. So tree-huggers, you can blame him. Apparently he has a fascination with destruction.

(photo by Scott V.)

Yum...melty marshmallows. We all had a total blast with these. But enough about campfire treats. Let's get to the good stuff, the cake!

(photo by Scott V.)

Yay! It turned out so cute! The one sad note was that it was so immensely humid that it turned stale pretty much instantly. Oh well. We ended up tossing it into the fire pit later for added entertainment. How's that for a country wedding?!

(photo by Scott V.)

How adorable did his fish cake turn out?! It looks fantastic! I was completely blown away.

And if you recall, this cake cost us zero dollars. My MIL has a neighbor and close friend who bakes these amazing cakes, and generously gave it to us for the cost of ingredients (which my MIL covered). Again, one of the highlights of my day. It seems I actually have a lot of those! After we admired them for a good long while, it was time to hack away. We cut and served both to each other, just for good measure.

(photos by Scott V.)

While the Krispies cake was a little chewy, the groom's cake (which was half chocolate and half strawberry, yum!) was delicious. I had two pieces, one of each flavor of course! I have to say, cutting the cake is a great tradition. You get to beat everybody out to the good stuff ;) Once we finished chowing down, it was time to brush off our dancing shoes and hit the floor for our First Dance!

Somewhere Down in Texas: It's All in the Details

2010-10-19T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is going to be my favorite post of all time! There's just something about detail shots that speaks to my soul. I think it's that they fully express all the creativity and individuality of the couple and their wedding. For me, I poured my heart and soul into every last craft project, and it's such a rewarding feeling to see it all look so beautiful in photographs. So, here we go!

(photo by Scott V.)

Right when you walked into the Pavilion, you were greeted with our killer programs in these vibrant buckets. This also served as our guestbook table, and a place to feature Mr. SD's boot.

(photo by Scott V.)

It was very important to the mister to have this boot at our wedding. Apparently, it was featured in his parents' nuptials. Mind you they divorced a year later, but I'm not one to hold with superstition. In fact, those flowers in there weren't an original plan (which was, NO FLOWERS AT THE WEDDING!) These were conveniently nabbed from the house, which were given to me by said husband as an "I'm-sorry-I-stood-you-up-for-dinner-and-forgot-to-bring-you-cokes-because-I-spent-three-hours-at-the-gun-range" present from earlier in the week. So I think we're off on the right track! Here's another angle of the table, with a couple of lanterns borrowed from my bride-friend Meagan.

(photo by Scott V.)

In between these two sat my adorable little sign and quilt setup.

(photo by Scott V.)

I decided to go with the hive's suggestion and just have two guestbooks. And I'm so glad I did! Everybody had no qualms about signing both, and they each turned out looking fantastic. We have such sweet messages.

(photo by Scott V.)

One unexpected thing was that guests mixed up the fabric and paint pens and used them on both "guestbooks". I love how it turned out on the bench, but you can't read the silver quilt swatches. Which is no big, really, since I plan on embroidering over all the words anyway to better preserve them. So, if you're thinking bench sign-in, I would definitely recommend using 2-3 colors, probably in the same color range. Or just play around with it. It's your day, so have fun!

(photo by Scott V.)

If you are on the fence about a s'mores station, my advice is to go for it! We had such cute pictures, and happy guests. People love s'mores. They're easy, and fun cause you get to play with fire. One other piece of advice. Be super careful when transporting your things back and forth. People just piled stuff into the backs of cars, and both my apothecary jar and cake stand shattered. Sad day :( I'll just have to wait until HL has another 50% off sale so I can replenish my stock.

(photo by Scott V.)

Mmmm...light. The place looked so great all lit up in string lights and lanterns. They were a PITA to get up there, but were so worth it! I want to re-use all those lanterns and create a super fun studio, with a cloud-like ceiling full of 'em. Then I'll get to think about our wedding day every day! Woohoo!

(photo by Scott V.)

It was way too windy to use our chuppah, which at first I was sad about. We re-purposed it and tied it to the entrance, which turned out really cute. As a side note, I have no clue who this kid is. He's a wanderer from one of the eight thousand peewee football games going on around us. Punk.

(photo by Scott V.)

My perfect cake topper in action. I thought you deserved a little teaser, since I'm covering desserts next! It was so cute, and totally fit the look.

(photo by Scott V.)

Oh, did I mention that not only is bride-friend Meagan generous, but she's brilliant too? I had no real plan as to where I was going to put the mason-jar candles. There was only enough for about 1 per table, and it looked kinda dumb. Then Meagan had a brainwave, why not line the stage with them? And oh my goodness, it was seven kinds of lovely. One of the best details, hands down. You should always let your brilliant friends suggest things at the last minute, because then you get really really happy whenever you glance at them all night, thinking what an ingenious idea it was.

(photo by Scott V.)

Our rings, lookin' all indy and fly. He messed up the alignment on mine a bit, but it's still pretty cool nonetheless. I went and got them soldered together this week, so I have an engagement sandwich. It looks really good, I love wearing it everyday. Mr. SD is still trying to get accustomed to his, but he's getting there.

(photo by Scott V.)

Last but not least, the adorable sign my mom made with her Cricut the week before the wedding. She totally came through and made me some signage for all the drinks and beer, and they looked so incredibly cute! I love the little Western people. Though if I ever wore a vest like this in real life, I hope you'd call Clinton and Stacey for me ;)

So we've covered all the little details, now it's time to overdose on sugar!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Tying the Knot

2010-10-18T19:25:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm....this was a pretty day. The sun was setting, the shadows were long, and a rogue helper decided to carve a heart in our ceremony tree. I had no idea he'd done it until afterward, when people pointed it out. I have to admit, even though it's not the most environmentally friendly thing to do, I love looking at pictures of it, and secretly wish I had thought of it. We all lined up, and the music began to play.

(photo by Scott V.)

My groom looks on as my ring bearer finishes his big debut.

(photo by Scott V.)

I love looking at these groom pictures. Their faces are so sweet. I took a deep breath, and my parents and I started down the aisle.

(photo by Scott V.)

I chose to have both parents walk me down to keep a bit of tradition alive. I'm not a huge fan of "giving the bride away", but I wanted to have a kind of public declaration of support of our marriage. Though I kept the walk down the aisle, once we made it down I gave them a hug and then walked up to join my groom. I nixed the whole "Who gives this woman away" bit.

(photo by Scott V.)

I love this picture. And this one too...

(photo by Scott V.)

Just in case you were wondering, I kind of like Mr. SD too.

(photo by Scott V.)

Our sweet little ring bearer struck a pose.

(photo by Scott V.)

How handsome is this little guy? He's a heartbreaker, make no doubt about it. Once we all got into place, it was time to get this party started.

(photo by Scott V.)

Sigh. Heart. This was the perfect place to get married.

(photo by Scott V.)

This was the one moment of the day when I wasn't worried. I wasn't stressed. I was completely 100% in the moment, and it was awesome. I couldn't stop smiling.

(photo by Scott V.)

Vows were said, rings were exchanged, and we sealed our union with a kiss.

(photo by Scott V.)

We did it!

(photo by Scott V.)

Time to go! Little White church started playing, and hand-in-hand we made our way down the aisle together.

(photo by Scott V.)

Whew! It's official, we're a married pair (and now everybody knows about it!) All the pressure's off, and now it's time to get to the good stuff, all the details!

Major Score

2010-10-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

Sometimes your friends really know how to come through for you. The mister and I were talking about our new plan for our media center. We really want to build the Apothecary Console by Ana White.

(Knock-Off Wood)

Looks pretty cool, huh? I'm super excited! After we chose our piece, we looked at the cost. It was a little out of our budget for this month, so we resigned ourselves to putting it off until November. That is, until we called our Groomsman Cory! Aka best groomsman in the world! Turns out he had about 15 sheets of 3'x8' MDF just hanging out in his garage that he's been trying to get rid of for months. So guess who scored a ton of free MDF?! How exciting is that?! Now I not only get to build this project, I have a few more that have been waiting in the wings that are now on my immediate to-do list.

The Leaning Wall Shelf

The Recycling Center

The Parsons Desk

I can't wait to get started! So many projects, and so much time and supplies! Now that the wedding is through, I've got all sorts of time to fill with cutting and drilling and sanding ;)

Nearly Complete

2010-10-16T06:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I decided the time was ripe to find some chairs for our dining table. I was browsing through a magazine, when I saw these pretty lovlies from IKEA.

(IKEA)

Yet $35 for a chair that's not even 100% wood didn't sit well with me. I'm still new to my area, so I decided to wait until I had planned to visit my parents to really hit the resale shops. And look what I found for only $50 for 4!

They're perfect! I even love how each pair has a different top. They'll need to be repainted white, and my big decision now is whether to paint the seat or sand it to stain them to match the table. I'm leaning towards the two-tone look like the rest.

What do you think?

Breaking News

2010-10-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

I interrupt this recap program to tell you some great news...

I GOT MY PWC! And I love it! It's the best haircut I've ever had. I feel so sassy, especially with my glasses. My contacts have been really irritating lately, so I figured, why not just change up the whole look? I'm a brand new woman! Here's a little refresher of what I looked like pre-wedding.

(photo by Suzy Min)

I couldn't resist another Suzy Boudoir shot ;) But it was long, and now it's quite the opposite! I couldn't be happier. I'd been wanting to chop it off for a couple of months now, but held off until the wedding, not really wanting a drastic change just yet. Last Tuesday provided the perfect opportunity. So all you ladies who are thinking about a PWC, I totally recommend it! I feel fresh and fun and flirty. It rocks. And apparently comes with a new 'tude too!

Anybody else had a PWC? Are you thinking about one after your wedding?

Somewhere Down in Texas: No Turning Back Now

2010-10-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

We'd finished up with all the pre-ceremony pics, and now it was time for the big show.

(photo by Scott V)

Getting everyone together was like herding cats. If you're choosing to run your own show, I'd definitely recommend walking everyone through it a couple of times beforehand. I had planned to, then we ran out of time. This was one more minute of craziness, which isn't exactly ideal right before you're exchanging vows. But oh, well it's all water under the bridge. While we were organizing, guests were making use of our program fans.

(photo by Scott V)

Oh, did I mention that one of the band members, the one who ditched us, was a groomsman? Yup. I didn't care enough to reprint and assemble programs. At least the wedding party was evened out, how's that for a silver lining?

(photo by Scott V)

Let's get this party started! The music cued up, the fellas walked down, and then it was time for the girls to get up there.

(photo by Scott V)

P.S. How cute did those pinwheels turn out? And they actually worked too! Next up, we tie the knot!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Me, Me, Me!

2010-10-13T09:58:00.000-07:00

I swear I'm not a narcissist. I just had too many cute photos to tack on to the end of the bridesmaid post, I promise! Once we took all the girl pictures together, it was time to take a few of just the bride. We started with a little focus on my butterfly bouquet. I'm thrilled with how it all looked, and the pictures really make all the colors pop!

(photo by Scott V)

Oh, you need to see it a little closer? Well, ok!

(photo by Scott V)

I even made sure he snapped a shot of my lucky Fonz.

(photo by Scott V)

If you've noticed from the girls and guys pics, our trees have a whole lotta moss growing on them. They're gigantic trees too, one in our backyard has a 12 foot circumference! It's a whopper. Just so you know, they make for some romantically dramatic shots.

(photo by Scott V)

We lucked out that we chose the perfect time of the day to get married. The light was so amazing, it was unbelievable. Not quite sunset, just an Indian Summer late afternoon. By this point, it was about time to line up for the ceremony, but before I left I needed to show off my boots!

(photo by Scott V)

Next Up...corralling the crew!

Somewhere Down in Texas: Pretty Women

2010-10-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

Now that we've covered our men-folk, it's time to focus on the good stuff, my bridesmaids!

(photo by Scott V)

Oh, what's that? You want to check out our super-killer-mega-awesome butterfly bouquets?

(photo by Scott V)

Guys, HOW MUCH DO THESE ROCK?!? Holy crow, they photographed so beautifully. And for 13 dollars a pop, you really can't beat 'em. I'm displaying mine, and know of my other gals who are too. I love that they'll last for years, and still look beautiful. Okay, okay, I'll stop patting myself on the back now and share more pictures. Sorry.

(photo by Scott V)

Look at all my stunning maids! I love how they mixed up the boots with brown and black. Super cute, they all look fab. Hmmm....their faces seem a bit too far away to fully admire all the lovliness...

(photo by Scott V)

It's a bride sandwich! Or maybe a wrap. Whatever. After the nice lineups, we tried to do the whole "pretend you're laughing at something hilarious!" shot. Here's a nice sequence of how horrible we all were. Turns out we all like to guffaw with our eyes closed and mouths gaping wide. Lovely.

(photo by Scott V)

Pretty pretty pictures? Hmm....not so much. We did, however, take shots like the groomsmen. I love these, I want to print them all to keep around my house so whenever I feel blue I can remember how much these chicas love me!

(photo by Scott V)

I would like to point out I have equal representation of blondes and brunettes, with myself adding that ginger spice ;) I tried to talk Scott into a BvB shot, but he wasn't too into it.

(photo by Scott V)

I know how tiring it is to hear "Aren't my 'maids the loveliest ladies you've EVER SEEN?" But for the realz, guys, they're smokin' hot. Except bottom middle, because she's only 13, and is not allowed to be smokin' hot until she's at least 30. The two young blondies are the mister's little sisters, and totally rock. And p.s., if you look closely, Stacie, my bottom right bridesmaid, is wearing the coolest earrings I've ever seen. They're stars, but more like rock stars! Ok, I'm lame. But I eyed them all night and kind of wish I could Control-C those suckers and paste them into my jewelry box. Just sayin'.

(photo by Scott V)

I insisted on a shot with Bestie C, my hair and makeup stylist! She's not normally a Goliath (well, she is 5'10"), but she's wearing these killer heels to go with her killer dress. And I'm a weenie 5'4" in boots, so I'm a shrimp compared to her. She's my Amazon Goddess.

So you've seen all my fine females, but I don't think you've had enough "me" yet! ;) Next up, a mini-shoot with moi, and my bouquet of ~~brilliance~~ butterflies.

Somewhere Down in Texas: Let's Hear It For the Boys

2010-10-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

Let's give the boys a haaaaa-aayeeeeyaaand! Okay, moving on now. While the ladies were inside prettying up, the boys were outside cracking open a bottle of champagne.

(photo by Scott V)

It's too bad I broke all but one champagne flute in the move. Before you get too concerned, they were from Wally World, so I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to replace 'em. I'm just not a huge fan of champagne, so it's not really on my radar at the moment. After the fellas had their jollies, it was time for what was dubbed the "Flying V".

(photo by Scott V)

If you're wondering which dense, lush forest of foliage they're posing in, it's actually our backyard. Apparently living by the coast means the ground is saturated, so grass and trees grow like crazy here. For the first couple of months I was in awe of all the huge trees and super green, thick grass. The part of Texas I'm from is really dry, so I love the fact that we got such great nature shots in our own backyard! And we have a creek back there too, it's pretty cool. The dogs love to swim. Anyway, moving on...

(photo by Scott V)

All my ducks in a row...hee hee! Surprisingly, the redhead behind the groom is his little brother. And get this, he's only thirteen guys! I know he looks it in the face, but he's as tall as the mister! And has broader shoulders. Kid's gonna be huge. Not to mention the fact that they look nothing alike, but as they had different baby mamas, that probably makes sense.

(photo by Scott V)

I love that Scott got shots of all the guys with the groom, plus individual shots as well. You know, for those all-important Facebook profile pictures. I mean, who doesn't love a good headshot?

(photo by Scott V)

Seriously, you'd never imagine that those pictures are taken at a house in the middle of the city. Crazytalk. And in case you were wondering what the groom was wearing, here's a shot of Mr. GQ in his full getup.

(photo by Scott V)

Isn't he a sexpot? Too bad his modeling future was foiled when he topped out at 5'9". That's ok, Mr. SD, you'll always be my calendar boy (wink wink!)

Now for the runner up of my favorite shots of the day:

(photo by Scott V)

Swoon. You have no idea how much I heart those freckly hands. Plus, he did a fabulous job post-processing this shot. The bokeh is luscious. Not to mention those jeans! Easy, girl. I found myself a hottie, girls, make no mistake!

Now that we've seen the fellas, it's time to check on my girl power...

Somewhere Down in Texas: Gussyin' Up

2010-10-10T16:51:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time! My disk came over the weekend, and I'm so excited to be able to share my recaps with you all! With over 800 images to choose from, I've never had such a hard time choosing which pictures are prettiest! I love love LOVE my photographer, Scott V. of The Pros and RSVP Studios. I 100% endorse their work and highly recommend them. Ok, so enough with the gushing, let's get to the pictures already!

So you all heard about what a madhouse setting up the site was. So when we got to the house I immediately poured myself a glass of wine, drained it, then poured another to sip on. No need getting tipsy before the big show! I then jumped into the shower, so Bestie C could blow out my hair and start styling it.

(photo by Scott V)

All my girls started putting on their makeup, finishing up their hair, and putting on their pretty black dresses.

(photo by Scott V)

While I was in the works (and I have pictures, but I'm making a bunch of hair-pulling faces so I'll spare you the torture) Scott snagged a few pics of the details. Have I mentioned that I loved my red boots?!?

(photo by Scott V)

Here's a super cute ring shot. I have a thing for green, if you haven't noticed.

(photo by Scott V)

My sweet hangar in action, with the whole getup.

(photo by Scott V)

Also a quick snapshot of my lovingly hand-crafted invitations.

(photo by Scott V)

All too soon, my hair was finished (and beautiful, thanks Bestie C!), makeup applied, and it was time to put me in that iconic white dress.

(photo by Scott V)

Mama SD needed a little help fastening the clasp, so Bridesmaid Nikki came to the rescue!

(photo by Scott V)

Garter on...

(photo by Scott V)

Check! Necklace on...

(photo by Scott V)

Check! And now to finish up the look with some pearl earrings.

(photo by Scott V)

Don't I look so pensive? Maybe I'm having cold feet! Ok, no, not really. I'm just
a) a horrible face-maker in pictures and
b) a compulsive blinker.

I drove the photog NUTS! Sorry Scott, my bad. But, you can get a good look at the pearl ring my mom leant me, which matches my earrings. So they completed the whole coastal casual beachy vibe I was going for.

Next up, some sexy fellas!

Knocked Off: Simple Nightstand

2010-10-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

In an effort to pretty much hand-build our entire selection of household furniture (minus the pieces we decided to keep that were already here, and buying a couch because that's just where the mister decided to draw the line), I've been collecting plans from Ana-White.com for quite some time now. In an effort to make our bedroom a little more organized, I decided to build the Simplest Nightstand. We used some scrap lumber from old bed rails, so the dimensions are a little off from Ana's plan. But my motto is waste not, want not, and I think our little piece is quite the stunner!

You'll notice there's a bit of a sway in the top. This is what happens when you don't measure properly and are too lazy to take it apart or sand it down. Obviously these are things I'll need to improve on all my future projects!

It looks much better from the front. Minus the chip, it's just because the wood was about 50 years old. I'm sure it's nice that it gets to see the light of day now, and not the bottom of a box spring!

I picked up my cute little knob at Hobby Lobby, of all places. I love the "N". Nothing like a little classic Pottery Barn initial action to really make it all complete.

Overall, it's not a bad first attempt. Not great, but not bad. It works great for what it's for. But it also serves as a smack in the face of my average woodworking capabilities. Time to step it up a notch and measure well, square up, and choose good lumber for each job. I also need a little work on my sanding and finishing. At least it's all up from here!

Inspiration vs. Reality

2010-10-08T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm still waiting on my disk, but I just can't wait any longer, I have to at least post a teaser! Our online gallery is up, and though it's protected where you can't save the images to your desktop, I took low res screenshots with my computer to make a Polyvore set. Don't you just love modern technology? I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of the inspiration set and photos from the real thing! So here goes:

The Inspiration:

(sources, from top left - Rings, Invitations, Barbecue, Bouquet, Picnic, Barn, Frame, Cans, Gazebo, Bridesmaids)

The Reality:

All photos courtesy of The Pros

Some minor differences: I didn't have any photos of the barbecue or the tables (which means no can pics). A bit sad, but the rest of the pictures are so awesome that I'm ok with the omission! I looooooove how everything turned out, now that I look at it. You can't tell from the pictures that half the guests didn't show, or if anybody left early. All I see is my hard work come to fruition. I can't wait to share the rest with you! Hopefully it comes in the mail this weekend, so I can start up on my recaps!

Building Spree

2010-10-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

Lately it seems like I just need to build. The plans over at Ana White have been so inspiring, not to mention the facebook fan page of everyone's brag photos. The hubs and I promised his little sister to redo her bedroom for her birthday. Our budget was $150, and it looks like we'll be right on target. We started by building her a the Simple Bed in full size.

We started painting it white today, and it's looking great! We're going to paint the walls a nice rich plum to match her new comforter (not the one in the image). I also built her a nightstand from a 10' 1x12. It turned out ok, it looks a lot better now that it's painted.

I still haven't mastered shelves, obviously. The bottom one is the most level, you just can't tell in the picture. With a little more practice, maybe I'll get the hang of it. I figure I got at least 30 years ahead of me ;)

These ledges were posted on Ana's blog late last night, and was the whole reason I tromped over to Lowe's first thing this morning. Aren't they stunning? I chose to do 4' widths, to fit the empty space above my unfinished craft table.

They turned out great! I still need to paint, then harass the hubs into helping me hang them.

I must have chosen more expensive wood, as the 4' shelves were $10 each, and she got 8' ones for that much. But still, 30 bucks for custom shelving is way cheaper than I'd pay at Pottery Barn, or even Walmart for a solid wood 4 foot long ledge. And I love 'em! I can't wait to get them finished and up on the wall. I'm working on organizing all my closets so the house isn't so chaotic. It seems that since I've come home from the honeymoon I've turned into a total slob. Not sure how that happened, but here we are...

The Honeymoon from Hell

2010-10-06T22:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, so maybe that's an exaggeration. It wasn't 100% bad, just maybe around 81%. I want to start with a disclaimer. I do not blame the weather on Carnival. In fact, I don't even blame the closed ports on Carnival. What I (and apparently, 2800 guests according to their facebook, which may be an exaggeration) am upset about, is the fact that our captain decided to stick with the original itinerary, despite evidence that five other Carnival cruise ships changed theirs to reflect the weather threats of Matthew and Nicole. In fact, some changed routes the day before Nicole hit Jamaica. So congrats to you, lucky cruisers! You missed out on all the crazy adventure.

Things started out great. We boarded the ship bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, looking forward to a week of relaxation and easy. Buh-bye stress! (ha, yeah right!)

We immediately got the special of the day (which, as you may know, is pricey like all the drinks. Being a first time cruiser I thought alcohol would at least be reasonable. Boy, was I wrong!) and made it to the top deck. Caribbean here we come!

Wait, what? What is this? Oh, this is Montego Bay, the port that supposedly was closed days before we even made it there. Well, that's what the peeps were saying on the ship, I can't find any articles online. Rumors were flying like crazy, and the Captain chose not to inform us of all the details. Now, don't get me wrong. I am GLAD we didn't land in these ports. The weather was horrible. We had limited updates via our tv in the cabin, and we stayed mostly around 8-12' swells, and even got as close to 20' waves pounding the ship. Winds were upwards of 40 mph. Seasick bags were all over the ship, and people were stumbling all over the place. The pools were losing water left and right (literally!) The ship was a-rockin', but not in a good way. So, staff scrambled to whip up another fun day at sea (this would make day #4). I'm sorry, but there are only so many days I can withstand trivia games and bean bag tosses. We managed to entertain ourselves, but guys, I am not exaggerating when I say the sea was kickin'. I was terrified, making myself take long naps so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Fast forward to Thursday. We make it to Grand Cayman, but it's way too rough for the tender boats to offload us from the ship. In fact, that port had been closed for days prior, a fact confirmed by our cruise director. So why even show up to tease us? We just watched land sail by again.

Wait, what is this? Is that LAND I see?! Why, yes! We FINALLY made port in Cozumel on Friday. That's 6 long days in wretched seas, my friends. We managed to make the best of it, getting about 8 hours in port. We packed in all our shopping, stopped by a local beach to swim (it even had free wifi, sweet!) and ate some seriously tasty food.

This is where things get hairy. Yes, we made it to Cozumel. Unfortunately, the Carnival Valor was docked as well. Sounds like their Captain was a genius! Instead of sailing straight for a crazy almost-tropical storm, terrifying all your cruise patrons, he took them to alternate routes such as Belize and Honduras. Why, what a great idea, smart captain man! We were LIVID when we found all this out. And then I got home to read that not only the Valor re-routed, the Triumph, Liberty, Freedom, Inspiration and Elation ALSO rerouted! Grrrrrrr!

So yes, people, I understand that as a first-time cruiser, I made a mistake and booked during the end of hurricane season. Being a land-lubber all my life, I never realized I had to take that into consideration. My only concern was that it left the day after the wedding. BAD MOVE, SAND DOLLAR!

What gets me, is that:

1) Why sail directly for a port you KNOW is closed, or will be closed? Obviously the captain has access to superior weather equipment. So he knew it was coming, and instead of doing like the other ships, and avoiding it, he ran straight into it. And trust me guys, it was major scary. The boat rocked and shuddered and creaked like nobody's business. People ran into walls, railings, and each other unpredictably. Tons got seasick, and I would have hated to be a child on that boat.

2) If other ships in your cruise line are rerouting, why not join the club? Yes, missing ports sucks. A "Fun Day at Sea" is really not all that fun. You have a few games to choose from, but the spa is outrageously expensive ($200 for a 1-hr massage, which was more than the excursion cost for BOTH of us), and repeating games eight times gets old fast. We played Pictionary and bean-bag toss twice each, then it was tired. Dance shows were canceled, as was the magic show, because we couldn't pick up the musician at the first two ports. I'm mega pissed that the captain made such a horrible decision. Why not start the trip backward, starting in Cozumel, and see how the seas shape up? I'm sure people would have been much happier to have 3 days on land, whether it was in the same place or not. And from what I heard from the other lucky cruisers, Belize and Honduras was awesome. What's your excuse for bypassing those and putting us through hell?

3) A 20% discount on a future cruise is laughable. Guys, we sat next to a bride sobbing because she had planned to get married in Jamaica. So we overheard her plans to reschedule to the Grand Caymans. I can only imagine how much worse she felt when that was canceled too :( The customer service reps were unhelpful, and I guess I understand why the ship crew was. Yet when I filed a complaint online, I got no response. Not a "thank you for your feedback", nothing. The phone rep basically told me I was SOL ($#!@ Outta Luck) because of the Itinerary Change Clause we agreed to when we booked. Yes, the captain has a right to change plans due to weather conditions and safety reasons. I just wish he was mentally capable of making those decisions beforehand so we could still enjoy our experience.

Final decision: I will never cruise Carnival again. I don't care if the weather wasn't their fault, the captain's decisions were. I totally wish we were on the Valor. Or any of the other boats who rerouted. The silver lining was that the Mister and I got to spend a lot of good snuggle time in bed, and watched a ton of movies (alone time is pretty rare, where he's practically a celebrity in his hometown). Reality Check: We could have done this for way cheaper at home, and hanky-panky was left at a minimum because of how horrible we both felt from the waves. And just so you know, we really hold Honeymoon Hanky-Panky in high regard, so that should be a testament of how cruddy conditions were. I've never been so glad to get home from a vacation in my life!

Anybody else have a less-than-stellar honeymoon? Any suggestions on where our Honeymoon Do-Over should be?

My Big Fat Cheap Wedding

2010-10-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

So I was a little off on when the photographer's disk would arrive, looks like it'll be another few days. So in the meantime, I figured I'd share my Real Bee Budget! Let's see just how far a teeny tiny budget can get you. I used WeddingWire for my guestlist and budget, so I'll itemize they same way they do (which is alphabetically). Here we go!

The Sand Dollar Wedding Budget

Band - $500
We decided to keep the initial budget, and gave $250 each to my best bud Will and his guitarist. They were great, the music was amazing and we got to play some selections from our ipod playlist. I'm happy with how it all turned out.

Cake and Desserts - $20
The Rice Krispies cake took six batches of treats. That's about 3 giant boxes and six bags of marshmallows (which I bought for a buck each). The groom's cake (which turned out spectacular, let me tell you!) was free. His mom bought all the ingredients and her good friend who's a baker made and delivered the cake. It totally knocked our socks off. I have three life-size candy fish in my freezer. Not quite sure what I plan to do with these, but maybe a fun photo op is in our future!

Catering - $855
This includes all the plates, napkins, cutlery, drinks, and food (including s'mores). The entire, all inclusive cost. We have a ton left over, as we supplied for 200 people and only about 120 showed up. So, if you break it down, that would have been a total cost of roughly $4.25 per person. So suck it, barbecue vendor man who laughed when I said my budget was $4 per person! Though he actually was really nice and gave me the sale price on 20lbs of sausage ;) We've got a ton of brisket, corn, and sausage in our freezer. And about 150 water bottles, which we will drink with abandon. As well as a million plastic cups (beer pong or flip cup, anyone?), paper plates, and cutlery sets. We had more food than we knew what to do with, and it was finger-lickin' good. It may have been favorite thing about the wedding, aside from the photos.

Dress and Attire - $176
My wedding gown was free (a kind of gift/loan from Providence Place). I love these ladies so much, both of the shop owners were at the wedding (Bestie E was my "coordinator"). I'm giving the dress back to the shop to work as one of their sample gowns. I also paid for it probably a million times over by not only volunteering Mr. SD's electrician skills (he installed a chandelier, sconces, and a bunch of new plugs for the outdoor area) but about a hundred hours digging bricks out of their lawn to help them with the landscaping. Plus, I gave them all my string lights when it was done. But it was worth it, the gown was the dress of my dreams!
My reception dress was $70, I paid wholesale cost for the Mori Lee Bridesmaid dress in ivory. This one I plan to keep, and am thinking about dyeing it a fun color. We also paid for some new jeans, a shirt, and a belt for the mister.

Decor - $657
String lights, paper lanterns, butcher paper, and all the trimmings. This all added up so fast, and was the one place where I went over budget. I love how everything turned out, and the best part is that I get to keep most of it! I'll have to find ways to repurpose it in my home.

Stationery - $189
Save the Dates, Invitations, and Programs. Also including postage. I cleaned up on stationery, due to the fact that I did all the printing and design myself. This was the best way I saved.

Jewelry - $76
My two bands were $50, and his ceramic ring was a whopping $26 on Amazon. We have to buy him a new, smaller one, as now that the weather is cooling off the ring is pretty loose. I think we can manage another 20 bucks so he can swap them out each season ;)

Officiant - $59
No, not our stellar friend who performed the ceremony. This covers the cost of our marriage license (with the $60 waived for completing the TwoGether in Texas course) and the JOP when we tied the knot legally in May.

Bridesmaid and Groomsmen Gifts - $120
We got belt buckles for the guys, which of course Mr. SD forgot to hand out. So now we'd like to get them engraved with the guys' names and mail them to 'em. I think it'll be cute! And of course, you've seen the projects I made for my girls. They loved them, thankfully!

Photography - $976
The. Best. Purchase. I love every picture. They're all fantastic! He did such a great job, and I can't wait to get my disk and go crazy printing everything. Our house is entirely devoid of photos of us.

Venue - $375
The park was $275, and we had to pay an officer $100 to come out during the reception since we were serving beer. I loved the park, the pavilion looked fantastic. And the cop was sweet. We had a bit of confusion the week before the wedding regarding all the payment amounts, but it's all clear now.

So what's the damage?
Grand Total: $4,003

I was THREE DOLLARS over budget! Not too shabby I'd say! So for 4 grand, we got the wedding we were hoping for. The decor rocked, the photographer kicked ass, and the food was award-worthy. Though the day wasn't a fantastic experience overall, we're both really happy with how it all turned out. And for 4 grand, you really can't beat it!

Boudoir - Sand Dollar Style!

2010-10-04T04:20:00.000-07:00

Before we get down to the nitty gritty of recaps, I have a little something special for ya. It's the rest of the pics from my boudoir session with Suzy Min! Hooray! I don't think I've mentioned enough times that I'm giddy with how great these photos are. She did an amazing job, and Mr. SD was floored. He's demanding that we get some printed for bedroom art, and has already shown some to his buddies. Gotta love a man who makes you feel pretty. So, let's break 'em out, guns a-blazin!

(all photos courtesy of Suzy Min. Do not copy or redistribute.)

I loved this outfit. I felt like a total bond girl. The heels turned out nice too, didn't they? Sometimes a little spit and polish can go a long way. Now that I brought the sexy, it was time to turn up the sweet.

(all photos courtesy of Suzy Min. Do not copy or redistribute.)

Cupcakes make good props. Remember this. You get to eat them while you take pictures, what's better than that? Oh...maybe I should have brought margaritas too! Now things get a little spicy. These are Mr. SD's favorites...

(all photos courtesy of Suzy Min. Do not copy or redistribute.)

What can I say, he's a fan of gun belts filled with ammo. Gotta love an old-fashioned man! The next round of shots were my favorites. I asked Suzy if we could take a few shots at home, in the bed the hubs and I built with our own two hands. And I love everything she came up with.

(all photos courtesy of Suzy Min. Do not copy or redistribute.)

I left out quite a few as they had a few too many curves for the Weddingbee front page, and despite what you may think I do like leaving a little mystery for the mister. We didn't get full-on nudie on any of them, they're all quite tasteful. I can't stress enough how much I loved this shoot, and Suzy's photography, and how empowered boudoir shots make you feel. So go out and schedule a shoot for yourself today, even if you're not engaged. Do it for you! Because it's always handy to keep on-file when you're 83 and feel like bragging about what a hottie you used to be for your grandkids ;)

Crazy Town

2010-10-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

(guest photo)

Well... I'm back! We just got home from the honeymoon, and are both enjoying the gorgeous fall weather doing what we love. I'm playing on the internet on our back porch (planning on adding daquiris into the mix later this evening!) and the mister is doing his best to take home Bambi's daddy in the woods. He was so kind as to inform me that he planned the wedding date to be the weekend prior to opening season. So now every anniversary will be a sort of "last hurrah" before I lose him for hunting season. Isn't he a such sweetie pie? Whatevs.

So while I wait on the pro pics (which are already online, and the disc has been sent in the mail, what great service from The Pros!) I thought I'd start with a few thoughts. About how absolutely horrible this whole wedding/honeymoon shebang turned out to be.

Most of the time, you hear the stories of fantastic wedding days: relaxing time with your girls getting pampered, sweet stolen moments with the groom, a ceremony so meaningful even crusty gramps tears up, and you dance the night away after great food and delicious cake. Well, girls, here's where I rain on your parade. My wedding day was miserable. It was a big fat wad of stress. I nearly tossed my cookies a number of times that day because I was just so overwhelmed. I heard my name called more times than in my collective days in school. "Brooke, how should we hang up the lanterns? Brooke, what should we do now? Brooke, when are we going to eat? Brooke, where should we get it? Brooke, what color are your shoelaces? Brooke, Brooke BROOKE!!!" Now don't get me wrong. I was so blessed to have friends step up and bend over backwards for me to help set up. And I am so grateful for them. But if I had to hear my name one more time, I was gonna lose it.

So ladies, any waffling on a coordinator or planner? GET ONE, STAT! Your sanity will thank me later. I had a friend volunteer for the task, but unfortunately she didn't show up until an hour before show time, so all the prep was left to me. The mister had to take care of all the running around tasks (picking up chairs, kegs, family, etc) so I was left to order the troops around. By the time the six hours passed (which they did, VERY quickly) I was about to lose my mind. I was stressed that two of my bridesmaids were running really late (they showed up just in time to get ready), that we barely had enough time to finish decorating, that it absolutely poured on another half of town causing flooded streets and crazy humidity. The wind was blowing over all our decor (we ended up "gluing" the cans to the butcher paper with silicone) and that park guests were probably the rudest, stupidest, most annoying examples of humanity I've ever seen. They tramped all over the pavilion (which we paid to rent), asked me inane, irritating questions all day ("So where did you buy all these lanterns? Oh, online? What website? What do you mean you don't remember? How much were they? How many did you buy? How long did they take to ship?" LEAVE ME ALONE CRAZY LADY I'M TRYING TO SET UP FOR A WEDDING!) We asked parents and kids to leave multiple times only to have them blatantly ignore us, or tell us it was going to pour down rain and we'd all get soaked and have a horrible time. Well, gee, thanks random asshole, now get the hell outta my face!

So needless to say, I was stressed the entire day. Even while we were getting ready, after two glasses of wine, our home was a madhouse. We barely made it out on time, got pictures taken, and were shuffled down the aisle to get this show on the road. My planner friend had to scare the living daylights out of two peewee football kids literally about to dip their fingers in the groom's cake. Maybe only half of the guests who RSVP'd actually showed up. The pace was slow and low-key, not at all what I envisioned. Don't get me wrong, for what it was, the wedding was spectacular. It just wasn't what I was expecting, and I was disappointed the entire time. We had good music, but not really any dancing. A lot of people left early. It was, well, mellow. Very mellow. And I was hoping for something more along the lines of rockin'.

So where's the silver lining? Though I didn't enjoy myself all too much the day of, the pictures are phenomenal. Scott V. of The Pros is a local photographer, and owns RSVP Studios. If you are a Houston-area bride, CALL HIM! I cannot sing his praises enough. For under $1000, I got 8 hours of coverage, a disk of images (with full rights), and photos that are to die for. He is very, very talented. You'll see in the recaps. Looking through his photos made me love my wedding day. He captured the essence of the party I wanted to throw, and set it in a positive light. Soon enough I'll glaze over the stress-fest and remember all the good times. So my advice? Hire a planner (or DOC) and get yourself a great photographer who will make your wedding look fantastic no matter how awful things are behind the scenes.

As for the honeymoon, I'll have a full rant up later, I'm sure. To sum it up, Carnival cruises majorly sucks. Due to their poor planning, we missed two ports and only landed in Cozumel for one day. So we got no excursions, and barely any time to enjoy ourselves. Six days on the water and only 1 actual fun day. Oh, and did I mention the torrential rain, thunder, lightning, and 12-14 foot swells? Yeah, even the sober people walked like they were trashed for two straight days. It was misery. Do not take a Carnival cruise, you will sorely regret it. But hey, at least we got a lot of naps, snuggle times, and movie watching in. I'm so glad to be home, y'all. Now I'll stop being such a party pooper!

Crackle

2010-10-02T08:46:00.000-07:00

This post is pretty random, but sometimes it's the little things that can make a big impact. I left a dirty coffee cup before we left, and was greeted with this when we came home.

I just like it. Plain and simple. The crackle, the wood grain, the colors and simplicity. Art is in the little things. And I like that.

Waiting Game

2010-10-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

I don't know how I lived a week without this face...

Or this one...

But I hope I never have to again. I've missed my baby girl.

Sigh.

Peace Out

2010-09-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

Well hive, it's about that time. All the projects are finished, last minute supplies are being bought, and we're ready to start setting everything up to set the scene for the biggest party this little town has seen in a good long while. I have no idea whether the weather will cooperate, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

I've had so much fun sharing all my crafting obsessions, quirky plans, and DIY masterpieces with you all. You've been so much help, and given so much support, that I can't help but think you'll be a part of this day too. As I prepare to sweat my tush off in the humidity (hey, it's a great way to get rid of pre-wedding bloat!), I want to say thanks. Thanks for everything! I can't wait to get this show on the road, smell the barbecue in the air, and prepare to marry the best hick-town redneck this side of the Mississippi.

See you on the flip side!

<3 The Sand Dollars

Wrapping it Up

2010-09-23T09:21:00.000-07:00

As the countdown continues to dwindle to barely a handful of days, I find myself wanting to shirk off all the important tasks at hand (making the cake, paying the security officer, yada yada...) and deciding to tackle more craft projects. Because I am a craft addict. First up, another bridesmaid gift! I decided that two handmade presents weren't enough, so how about 3? I wanted to make some pretty, fun rice-filled "eye-masks" of sorts. Basically, if you fill up a cloth container with rice, you can microwave it for 30 seconds to make a heat pack, or toss it in the freezer for 30 minutes for a cool one. I love to use them on sore muscles or puffy eyes. I'm not sure what they're really called, but all I know is I made some pretty cute ones for my girls!

I sewed a heart on each side in the reverse-side fabric (because everything should be reversible, in my opinion! And decided not to sew them shut, but to have a button and loop. The rice-pack is slipped inside, should they feel they'd rather have a fabric pouch than a heating/cooling thingamajig. And just to refresh, here are their other two gifts:

Handmade headbands, and cute upholstered letters! I think they'll like everything. Though I had a tiny budget ($30 for six girls!) I feel like I stretched it a pretty long way.

In other news, the hive voted, and I listened! We'll now be doing the guestbook quilt AND bench! I'm really excited about it. I love the idea of snuggling up with the quilt on our bench. So, because I felt like 297 tasks before the wedding wasn't enough, I decided to decorate the bench a bit before everyone signed it. So, I painted it white, then added the art from our programs on it. Wanna see?

It turned out really cute! We have silver sharpies for all the signatures. If you're wondering how to do an easy transfer, here's a quick tutorial.

1) Print out your artwork. Doesn't matter in what color, just needs to be the right size.

2) Scribble pencil all over the back where you'll be transferring. I prefer old fashioned pencils for this part, they give you more even coverage.

3) Flip it over, and lay it right side up on your project. Using a fine-pointed pencil (mechanical works great here) trace over your outline. When you remove the paper, you'll see your outlined work.

4) Trace over it with paint/pen/sharpie/whatever! And fill it in if you like. Then you're all done!

Our bench is ready to go! We have a couple more things to wrap up, but these two projects have been my favorites. I can't wait for the wedding to finally get here to see everything in action!

Just Put Some Windex On It

2010-09-22T10:41:00.000-07:00

Anybody out there Big Fat Greek Wedding fans? Well if you aren't, then let me tell you that there's some good advice in that movie. Did you know that Windex is magical? Well, it is, and this week it saved my dress.

This past Sunday, while Mr. SD was driving back from his bachelor party in Corpus Christi, my FMIL brought his little sister over so we could go pick out some paint swatches to redecorate her room. I realized I'd never shown them my dress, so I went to the closet and pulled them out. That's when I saw it. A faint pink streak down the front of my short dress. I stayed calm on the outside, but inside I was screaming expletives. Really, wedding gods? First you make my band flake out, now you've changed my 0% rain sunny day to 40% THUNDER STORMS, and now you're trying to ruin my dress. So I called the lovely, helpful ladies at Providence Place who sold me my gowns. They let me in on a little secret they learned back when they entered the biz. Now, my short dress is a Mori Lee Bridesmaid dress, and the long one is a gown from their private collection. But, apparently many designers chemically treat their dresses for situations like this. Here's a little photo of the big bad stain:

I'd already removed the giant streak before I had the presence of mind to take a photo. But this one shows a dime size spot, which is pretty easy to see as it's smack dab in the center of the skirt. So I whipped out my gear.

Windex and a rag. I was told to spray to cover the entire spot, then blot, blot, blot! And ladies, I couldn't believe my eyes! That spot just came right out as if it was magic! No washing, no rinsing, just a little spraying and blotting action. I saved myself the time and expense of going to the cleaner's, and not knowing if I was going to come back with a clean dress or not. Now you can see that's it's as good as new.

Hooray, Windex! I'd urge all of you to call up your salon and ask if your gown is treated as well. It would be a great way to ensure that if something happens on the Big Day, you have a fool-proof cleaning method that will leave you stress (and stain) free.

Have you picked up any good tips for last minute wedding bumps?

Traditional, Who Knew?

2010-09-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Considering all the things we've broken the rules on (no flowers, getting legally married before the wedding, having a Rice Krispies wedding cake, doing a "first look") I'm surprised to find that we're sticking to a lot of long-standing wedding traditions. First up: the Dollar Dance!

(source)

For those of you unfamiliar with the Dollar Dance (aka Money Dance, Honeymoon Dance, Shameless-Request-For-Cash-On-Our-Wedding-Day) it's a popular tradition in the south, and has been at pretty much every wedding I've been to in this neck of the woods. And let me tell you, people LOVE it here! We round up a whole bunch of cash, have the Best Man and Maid of Honor hold a couple of boots, and throw down a dancing battle royale as to who hustles up more cash. Our good friends made about $300 off theirs, which is a huge help on the honeymoon. All the younger guests (and some family) get a big kick out of dancing with each other. Especially groomsmen with the groom. Anyway, I was thinking that we really needed it to be a popular song, to get the most people to want to dance. So what's the hottest, hippest, most popular song in Lake Jackson these days?

Wagon Wheel, by Old Crow Medicine Show. I was crazy excited about this with our old band, because lately they've revised it to more of a rock song, and they totally jam out to it. But alas, they threw us to the wayside, so we'll have to go with the original. It's folksy, it's twangy, but mostly, everybody has been obsessed with it since high school. So I know they'll want to get out there and dance!

Also on the agenda are the classic bouquet and garter toss. No special songs here, we'll just boot up the ipod and turn down the sound a bit. I do plan on borrowing a bridesmaid bouquet for the toss, though, as I'd like to keep mine in tip-top shape. I'm also reclaiming my garter from the lucky fella. I heard a hot suggestion to tie a gift card to the bouquet and garter to promote that old-fashioned excitement our uninterested-in-marriage single folks just don't seem to procure these days.

And last but not least? Birdseed. We're tossing birdseed as we make our exit to our getaway scooter. Not quite as traditional as rice, we wanted to be as animal-friendly as possible. I had originally suggested deer corn when I thought the park would allow seeds, and wouldn't you know it, my country-bumpkin, redneck groom said it would be "too hick-town". Can you believe it? I was shocked. So, I called the Parks and Rec services department and got the all-clear on birdseed. I picked up a huge $10 bag from Wal-Mart and now we're all good to go!

What traditions are you keeping, and which ones have you decided to break?

Rockwall Harbor Logo

2010-09-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes coming up with a logo idea requires a lot of research. I do thumbnail sketches, then move to Illustrator to do a few mockups, and have 10-15 different options to choose from. I look at logo books and google images for inspiration. Then there are those times when a logo idea walks into my brain all pretty and done. This was one of those times. I'm redesigning the website for the Rockwall Harbor, and they needed a new logo. Here's what I came up with:

I love it! That funny looking thing on the left is a stylized version of the gorgeous fountain they have on-site. Here's a quick reference:

I thought it would be a nice touch to bring something identifiable to this logo, as opposed to simply typographical elements. I can't wait to show you the finished website. It's still in the development stage right now, but it's moving along well!

A Logo Evolution

2010-09-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, designing a logo is a simple process. With the West Brazos Dental Center, I hit the nail on the head in the first round. For Terry Driggers' private practice, it took a lot more effort. Here are a few of the options we started out with.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Option 6

Option 7

So you can see I really ran the gamut on what they could go for. They knew they wanted a two color logo, with an emphasis on typography, and the family dentistry part. So, what did they choose? A sleek, boxy design.

I love it. It's bold, simple, and to-the-point. I wanted it to seem reminiscent of teeth without being too literal. I think I'm really fleshing out what my style is as a designer, and you can see the common threads throughout the other logo choices. I'm hoping to get a few more logo jobs in the near future, and really see what I can do!

Things I've Done

2010-09-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

I love finding out more about people. I was browsing through my starred items in Google Reader, and found this on a friend's blog. So, here goes! The things I've done are in bold.

(If you want to fill it out for yourself, just cut and paste, then bold the things you have done.)
1. Started your own blog (try six...)
2. Slept under the stars (I do a lot of camping)
3. Played in a band (praise band, holla! I played the bass)
4. Visited Hawaii (Maui, in 8th grade for my parents' 20th)
5. Watched a meteor shower (thanks astronomy class!)
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (again...praise band, and choir)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (twice, lucky me!)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch (sewing, baking, carpentry, I could go on...)
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (bleh)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (I loved my salsa garden)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (twice!)
20. Slept on an overnight train (from Paris to Rome)
21. Had a pillow fight (what girl hasn't?)
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (several, I'm bad)
24. Built a snow fort (I lived near Boston for 7 years)
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (soon! I have to!)
27. Run a marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (good times)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (next Sunday! Holy crap!)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community (and have the bonnet to prove it)
36. Taught yourself a new language (Japanese and Mandarin, though I was never fluent)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight (and of course, the requisite make-out session ;)
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted (I'd say drawn counts)
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (Maui)
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud (can't wait to go back to Shiloh for more muddin' action!)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (I was in a crowd scene in DC when I was in first grade)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (Sprout Graphics!)
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies (I was a Brownie, then a Junior, then I quit)
62. Gone whale watching (Humpbacks, in the Boston Harbor)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt (Three so far, still working on my technique)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (thanks Royse City)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous (Kevin Jonas!)
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a lawsuit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day

This is a fun list, there's a lot of diverse activities. I hadn't realized I'd lived quite so much! It makes me grateful for the life I've lived, and all the things I still have yet to do.

Please Help Me... I Can't Stop Myself!

2010-09-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

Oh, Elephant, why did you have to torture me so?!? You posted this picture yesterday, and now I can't get it out of my head.

(source)

I haven't thought of this idea in AGES, since I followed Mrs. Apple Cider in the first place. And then you go and post it willy-nilly and throw me into a tizzy. All I had to do was flip my computer over to Mr. SD and simply say, "Look at this". We had the whole sneaky smile thing going on. It's awesome! And we already have the bench built, the one my bridesmaids helped me with during my Bachelorette Craftapallooza.

I literally just took this out to my garage and sanded it yesterday in order to paint it this weekend, until I read Elephant's post. I had planned to have just my girls sign the bottom, then paint it white for the foot of our bed. But now, I can have everybody sign the top, and it will be even more special. But what about the quilt?

I'm not sure if I want to lose the quilt. It's such a cute idea, and still something that will hold a lot of meaning for us. So, while I was writhing in agony, Mr. SD announced that we will let the hive vote. You won him over with the last one, on what we'll ride away on (which will be my cute little scooter) so we need your help again! Should we do the bench, or the quilt? Or should we do both? Are two guest "book" options too many? Will people do one or the other? I can make a new sign no problem, but is it asking too much? I don't want to go over the top with too many unconventional ideas. So cut a girl some slack, and tell me what to do!

a) Quilt Guestbook

b) Bench Guestbook

c) Both!

Must. Stop. Dreaming.

2010-09-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

I have an addiction to crafting. I've purposely forced myself to shelve my supplies so I can set a limit on all my wedding crafts. But that doesn't help all the daydreams of projects I so want to do...

(source)

I love Taylor. And I love this idea! How cute would it be to string up pictures of us at the entrance of our reception? Adorable. But Mr. SD would kill me, I'm already asking the boys to hang 40 strands of string lights and 50 paper lanterns. So, buh-bye cuteness.

A pretty cardbox. At first I struggled, searched the DIY section on the bee forums, then just decided to borrow a friend's birdcage for it. These two are mocking up my cake, and will be used as the Rice Krispies molds, so they'll get all greasy from the butter. Oh, well. A bird cage is still a really cute option.

(source)

Handmade, non-floral boutonnieres. My FMIL asked the mister if they were having any, and seemed a little disappointed when the answer was no. As they're only wearing shirts, no jackets or vests, I thought they would look out of place. But how much fun would it have been to bust out the ribbon and glue gun again? I'm going to have to open an etsy shop after the wedding to offset all my crafting urges!

(source)

Chair decorations, especially these adorable paper ones! We're already outlining the aisle with bright yellow pinwheels, but I'd still like to go the whole nine yards. And now, for my crowning glory.

(source)

The ever-adorable, painted furniture cake table! I want, want, want this! I even have a piece in mind, and an aqua paint can available...but alas. I can't. There's no way I can convince people to move this behemoth at midnight after the wedding. But a girl can dream, right?

Are there any crafts you're being forced to just-say-no to?

A Last Minute Addition

2010-09-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

I've heard lots of bees gushing about their wedding videos, and choosing their videographers. And I have to admit, I was jealous. Very jealous. We didn't have any wiggle room left in our budget, and have been facing financial hardship left and right on the home front, so it's definitely not been something I thought we could swing. Mama SD offered to pay for one, but I couldn't ask her to spend more than $1k on one and still feel good about getting Christmas presents this year! Besides, everything I found in that budget was super cheese. 90's music, horrible montages, and grainy videos. Not something I would spend money on myself, so I didn't want my mama to either. Yet she was adamant that I have some kind of video documentation of our day, that we would want to watch it someday down the line. So that's where this baby came in.

(source)

An HD video camera! Looks like I'm getting an early Christmas present anyway. Plus, this is something to keep well after the wedding day, to document babies and baseball and who knows what else. I feel like this is a much better investment than paying a grand for someone's time and a cheap-looking DVD I'll never want to look at. Our plan is to set this baby up on a tripod and film our ceremony, then do the same for our first dances and other big moments. And to keep the do-it-myself momentum up...

(source)

I'm going to edit it on my Mac with iMovie HD! I know. I'm crazy. I'm sewing my own quilt guestbook, making my own cake, writing my own ceremony, cooking food on-site (well, not me, but it's still self-catered!), and now making our own wedding video. The only vendors we've hired are the photographer, and the band (and we all know how well that turned out!) Everything else is all being done by us. And you know what? Instead of feeling cheap, or poor, or super lame that we have to do it all ourselves, I feel empowered. So what if we can't afford to hire people? We have capable hands, and a lot of friends. We're going to have a great time, no matter how much money we spent (or in our case, didn't spend) on this wedding. I don't have to worry about crazy vendors, waiting on their schedules to line up with mine, or compromise my vision. This wedding is going to be exactly how we want it. And the fact that we're the ones making this happen is a very happy feeling for us to share.

Did you decide to DIY something you thought you previously couldn't afford? What did you do?

Pulling It All Together

2010-09-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

The countdown continues. We have two weeks until W-Day, and I still feel completely frazzled. Our band hasn't mailed out the check for our returned payment. Our replacement band has a drummer that will be "unavailable" that weekend. I'm not sure where we'll go from here, so I've just decided to take it day-by-day and focus on the things I can nail down. Like signs. We need a few signs to take care of important wedding day messages, so I figured I would whip up a cute design in Illustrator for each one.

We had to go ahead and rent 20 chairs for the ceremony. As much as I fell in love with the hay bale idea, it would cost upwards of $5 per bale, as well as the fuel and inconvenience of driving 30 minutes away to the nearest feed store that sells them. Plus, at $2 a pop for the white wooden wedding chairs, it was too good a deal to pass up. We're reserving 20 for our elderly guests and immediate family, while the rest will stand during the ceremony. No need to worry about them, they should only have to stand for 15 minutes, tops. Not a big deal.

In wedding-land, it pays to make bride friends. A sweet friend of mine got married in July, and she's lending me all sorts of wedding goodness. The best of which is a birdcage for our cards! I heart you Megs. You're the best!

This one gives guests instructions on how to handle our quilt guestbook. I cut up all our swatches, pulled a trifle dish from my kitchen, and came up with this setup:

Then I signed one of the swatches to further help folks along.

We also rolled and tied about a million (oh, ok, 200) utensil sets. We'll have a couple jars, and a basket at our buffet tables.

I love that we tied them with twine. We'll have to come up with another way to use it in the wedding. That pretty much wraps up the last of my DIY projects, unless I suddenly remember something weddings have that I've forgotten to do.

Are you wrapping up plans for your wedding? What sort of projects do you have left?

Sexy Time Teasers!

2010-09-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Let me start off by blaring, this is NOT safe for work! Repeat, please do not view these at your cubicle, unless you are some sort of lingerie executive, then I suppose it would be business as usual.

Let me start off by saying that Suzy Min was fantastic. I went over to her house to take most of the pictures in her studio, and they turned out amazing. She had a ton of backdrops to choose from, and they were all perfect for each outfit I had on. She really took the time to help me pose, and never made me feel awkward or out of place. I'm shocked to say it, but damn! I look good! And trust me, it was all her. Well, and the week of going without Cokes and pasta, which give me that horrible belly bump. I'm currently chowing down on shrimp penne, a giant coke, and brownie batter. Trust me though, these pictures were worth the fast.

(Suzy Min)

Hello, Gorgeous, you come here often? I cannot believe she made me look like this. I'm so, so happy with the results, and I can't wait to see the rest of them! I only have these two until late next week, so I'll have to try and contain myself. I have a strong urge to make one of these my Facebook profile picture, but again, I'll restrain myself. I'm pretty sure all my vague high-school friends would be a little too excited to see pictures like these go up on the 'book. So for now, I'll share them with you, Hive!

And p.s. if you ever need a Houston (or Vegas!) area photographer, give Suzy a ring. She'll give you shots of tequila to loosen you up ;)

Sexy Time

2010-09-08T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hive! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. Today, I'm doing a boudoir shoot. Yup, that's right, I'm taking sexy pictures! And with none other than a hive member who befriended me, the lovely Suzy Min. She's a gorgeous local wedding photographer, who happens to live just down the street from my new home. How awesome is that? She's such a wonderful photographer, here's a sampling of her stunning work.

Suzy Min

Awesome, yeah? I can't wait to see what she comes up with. We've already done a lot of brainstorming as to what I'll wear. So far, I have five outfits:

A maid teddy from Victoria's Secret (only mine is all a soft pink), which I'll be pairing with a super cute little cake plate and some brightly colored mini cupcakes I bought from Wal Mart.

(source)

A sexy teddy with some killer heels, shades, and my Bersa .380 Thunder as I channel my inner Bond Babe.

(source)

I also have a bra and panty set that looks pretty burlesque that I plan to wear with Mr. SD's Old West six-shooter gun belt, spurs, and hat. He also has a bullwhip. Don't ask... Anyway.

I plan on also taking my Sea Side Pin Up swimsuit to complete my bombshell look, and a pair of aviators.

(InSwimwear.com)

My last outfit is a sexy babydoll, and we'll be taking them in the bed the mister and I built at my house. I think it's going to be so much fun, and I can't wait to share some of the pictures with you! My big plan is to create a e-photo album to load onto Mr. SD's phone the morning of the wedding. Something he can enjoy when he has to start working on the road for his job.

The last thing I want to talk about is footwear. When Suzy asked me if I had any sex-me heels, I unfortunately had to say no. But earlier when I was browsing my closet, I had a brainwave. One pair just needed a little love to reach it's true potential. I'd picked these babies up at Target a few years ago, and since have stopped wearing them because I thought they looked cheap, and too young. Case in point:

They were scratched, dull, faded, and I wasn't a huge fan of the brown and black color combo. It made them too casual. So I polished them up, took a black sharpie to the side, then channeled my inner Louboutin and painted the sole with some pink nail polish. Check out these stunners...

They look like brand new shoes! So cute and sexy, I can totally see all the height now. And the heels are so sassy. So Suzy, I'm ready for my close-up!

Who else is doing a boudoir shoot? How did you choose to share them with your SO?

An Engagement

2010-09-07T20:06:00.000-07:00

When you get to the end of things, you start remembering how they began. Seems I've not posted about our engagement story, so for all you romantics out there, here it is.

After dating for just under a year, Mr. Sand Dollar decided it was just about time to pop the question. He may have been nudged and bumped (or beaten) into this decision with a little help from me though ;) He had me completely thrown off the scent that it would be coming soon, and he swore up and down that it would never happen on my birthday or any other significant holiday. So when he mentioned that he had a surprise weekend in store for me as a birthday present, alarm bells didn't immediately set off. I was just excited to finally get a weekend away!

He was so sneaky! I should have known, he had been calling my Bestie E to have her help surprise me. All I'd known was that we were going to Dallas, my old stomping ground. Once we pulled in to a beautiful b&b though, I knew something was up. The innkeeper was on the phone, so we killed a little time wandering around the gorgeous place admiring the Christmas decorations. He didn't even seem nervous, we just chatted up a little small talk, and admired the belated Christmas decorations until the time came to check in. It all went smoothly, then the innkeeper said I had a little paperwork to take care of too. Then she handed me a paper titled "Will You Marry Me?" with little boxes for yes and no. But here's the best part. I turned around to see him on one knee, pulling the ring out of his dip can! Oh yes ladies. Nothing gets more romantic than this!

(personal photo)

It's a toumaline set in recycled argentium silver from Etsy seller SingleB, for those of you who missed my post. I love having such an untraditional engagement ring. He had me completely surprised. I burst into wild laughter, accused him of lying, punched him in the shoulder, then exclaimed "No freakin way!" and shed a tear or two.

Definitely the best birthday/anniversary/engagement weekend ever. We followed things up with a trip to the DMA art museum (breezing through at a cool 45 minutes), ate lunch at a niche restaurant (Cowboy Chow, for you Dallas kids), stopped by my friend's bridal shop Providence Place to play around in poufy white dresses. Then a casual night with my best friend and her family with a little ice skating tossed in. I have to say this was hands down the best birthday ever. We'll see what he comes up with next year!

How did your SO propose? Were you surprised, or did you know it was coming?

RSVP Woes

2010-09-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Who would've thought one little card could cause so much frustration? Especially one as cute as this!

They seem so simple. Check one box, write down a number, and pop it in your mailbox. Well, there's less than 3 weeks to go, and we received less than half of our RSVP's back. LESS THAN HALF! This is ridiculous! I mean, it's even already stamped! I've lost at least 20 bucks alone from not getting these mailed back to me. And the thing that really burns my biscuits is that when we have to call people to find out if they'll attend, they have the nerve to get all pissy about it! Sorry guys, but if I'm throwing a big party, reserving a seat for you, getting food cooked for you, providing you with dessert AND free beer, the least you can do is let me know if you'll be there or not. So sorry to inconvenience you with a text/phone call. Am I wrong to get so riled up about this? If, for some crazy reason or another, I didn't mail back an RSVP as a guest, I would call or email the bride to let her know my attendance. I knew our society is losing all our manners or etiquette, but since when is it ok not to let the host of a dinner party know you'll be in attendance?

Oh, and I ALWAYS send a gift. This is just common courtesy. A good friend of mine had her wedding in mid-July, and she said a good quarter of the guests did not give a gift. I'm sorry, but I find that just plain rude. And the kicker? My FMIL was one of the offenders, and a good chunk of her guests are mine too. I couldn't believe it. So, not only will we have to worry about not knowing how many will show (and bring uninvited extras – let's not forget how many people ignored their envelope and added up to FOUR extra guests), we may not even get a paltry gift from them either. This makes me very happy we're not breaking the bank on this shindig. And whenever I get worked up into a frenzy about it, Mr. SD just writes it off as "no big deal". So, it's official, hive. I am 100% a bridezilla when it comes to this whole guest list / rsvp thing. I am angry, and I feel like I have every right to be. Rant over.

What about you? Did your guests respond promptly, and/or give you if not a gift, at least a card of well wishes? Is anyone out there being driven as crazy as I am?!?

Don't Mind Me...

2010-09-05T15:22:00.000-07:00

Just back-dating a post so I can upload images to the blog to use for polyvore. So, if you're still in wedding suspense, skip this one over as there are wedding images ahead!

Before and After: Southern Oaks House

2010-09-04T10:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time. After nearly six months of scattered weekends, vacations, and finally a little concentrated effort, I'd consider G-Ma's house made-over. We tore out carpet and linoleum, painted walls and floors, switched out old light fixtures for new, and hand-built a slew of furniture. With just under $3000, we achieved our goal. Let's take a look room-by-room, shall we?

Living Room:
Before:

After:

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After:

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After:

Dining Room
Before:

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Kitchen
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Bathroom
Before:

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Master Bedroom
Before:

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Guest Bedroom
Before:

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After:

And that's it! Whew, that was a long tour. We still have a lot of touch ups on projects, and a lot more to take care of. But the bulk has been done, and this house is now so far and away from what it was before. We took a typical outdated, dark old house and made it a beautiful space to live. Our transformation is complete, and now I'm taking a month off for bed rest!

Keeping my Cool

2010-09-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

So here we are, at 22 days out. Most brides are finishing up any DIY projects, finalizing contracts, and getting payments together. Me? I'm just trying to keep from running around like a chicken with my head cut off. We were dealt a hard blow, guys. Our band double booked us.

Our crazy-awesome, all-our-guests-were-excited, favorite band screwed us over, three weeks before our wedding day. And I'm not gonna lie, it sucks. Mr. SD grew up with the drummer. In fact, he was even supposed to be in the wedding party (and is featured on our programs, which I REFUSE to reprint and cut and glue. Ain't gonna happen!) We had already paid them, and unfortunately only had a handshake agreement due to the whole friendship thing. No contracts, nada. It's partially our fault for that one, but we've talked about it so many times over the phone, and through email, and at their last gig at the end of July. So it's not like this wedding snuck up on them. They just blew off writing down the date and signed a contract somewhere else. So what are we going to do?

Option 1 - If we get the money back:

We've got a band that fits the bill. My boss's husband Will was pretty big in Germany some years ago, and started up an American band to play gigs here and there. Overall, I'm sure the music will be better, as they play mostly cover songs. The old band played all their own music, but as all the guests were big fans we all knew it. Oh, well, I'll take this silver lining. It looks pretty promising that we'll get the money next week, then we can book these guys for real. The good part here is that the guitarist is already a confirmed guest, so I know he'll make it.

Option 2 - No Money Returned:
We iPod the whole shebang. Will (our replacement) said he would happily play for us for free, but I'm not sure on just having a solo guitarist. Plus, if I can't pay him, I'd rather he enjoy himself as a guest than have to take on such a big job. We'll see. I'm really hoping we get that check.

So lesson learned...ALWAYS get a contract. Don't listen when your mister says it's all taken care of. He has no idea what he's talking about. I'm just thanking my lucky stars this happened with the band, which I had a great plan B for, as opposed to say, the guy cooking our food, which then we'd be SOL.

Anybody else out there hit with a a surprise cancellation? How did you deal with it?

Making a Cake, Take 57

2010-09-02T12:12:00.000-07:00

Okay, so if you haven't been keeping up, I tried to make a test wedding cake using the new Cricut Cake. Super fail. So now, I'm testing out this whole Rice Krispies cake concept. Overall, I'd say my first attempt was a super success, and I see no reason why I shouldn't be able to have a crazy cute cake on my wedding day.

I just popped on a little lace I had leftover from another project, and it looked alright. It wasn't exactly the feel I was going for, and was a bit too tall.

It actually looks pretty cute! I had to use my slow-cooker bowl to make the mold, and you can tell it's a little bit slanted due to the fact that the sides aren't straight. Here's a closeup of the ribbon and "cake"

I wanted to test out the freshness factor, since many commented that the cake has the potential to get pretty hard and difficult to cut. I plan to refrigerate after I make it the day before, then display it open air when we set things up, probably around 6ish when the groom's cake makes it's debut. Though it should only have about 2 hours of "open air" time, I left it out overnight to really check things out. And it was perfect! I cut out a slice with a knife and me and the FSIL taste tested it. Approved!

So how do I solve the shape issue? Well, I was brainstorming with my FMIL, and she came up with the idea of those cardboard hatboxes from Hobby Lobby. And whaddya know, they're 30% off this week! So for about eight bucks, we came home with two boxes perfectly shaped for a wedding cake. I also bought two rolls of red bandanna ribbon, and popped on a few extra butterflies to make a mock-up of the real thing.

Hooray! It doesn't look like a third grader made it! Just pretend the brown box is delicious Rice Krispies treats, and we're good to go. I absolutely adore it. I love the addition of the butterflies, and how the ribbon is so cute and country. It's totally going to fit in, and look fab doing it!

Crafting a Ceremony

2010-09-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

One thing Mr. SD and I didn't want to worry about was finding a minister. He attended a church all through high school, but the pastor has since left and been replaced. It's pretty much the same story for me, and we didn't really find a church home in Waco. So who do you ask? We didn't want a stranger to perform the ceremony, so we decided on a friend. Who? This guy.

This is basically the essence of Matty Reeves. And as much as I loved the thought of getting someone ordained and getting married "for real" during the ceremony, we decided to just play it safe and head to the courthouse beforehand to make it official. It wasn't particularly romantic, but it got the job done. Another upside is that I get to write the entire ceremony myself. I researched About.com and the Weddingbee boards. Here's what I came up with, for those of you in the same boat.

"We want to thank all of you for coming today to celebrate the wedding ceremony of Mr. and Miss Sand Dollar. They stand here today to make a commitment before God, and before their family and friends. They have decided to seal their commitment to each other with the bond of marriage, and wish to share this day with the people dearest to them.

Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of human relationships. No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that – through love and patience; through faithfulness and trust; through talking and listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through tenderness and laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and by learning to make the important things matter, and to let go of all the rest. What this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you make to stand together as husband and wife.

Mr. and Miss Sand Dollar have chosen each other to begin this new journey in their lives. Though every marriage begins with love and hope and happiness, there are times in every relationship where their faith will be tested. You are here today to share their joy, and also to help them through times of struggle. For those of you who are married, we ask you to share your good advice, and wisest comfort. For others, we ask for your support and friendship to help them through.

Mr. and Miss Sand Dollar, the hands you hold are young and strong and full of love, hands that are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and every day after.

These are the hands that will work alongside yours as you build your future, hands that will love you and cherish you through the years.

These are the hands that will hold yours when fear or grief comes your way, that will wipe the tears from your eyes, tears of sorrow and tears of joy.

These are the hands that will hold your children and give you support and encouragement to chase down your dreams.

These are the hands that will hold you as you struggle through difficult times, and will give you strength when you need it.

These are the hands that even when wrinkled and old will still be reaching for yours, giving you the same love you are filled with today.

Mr. SD, will you repeat after me?

I, Mr. SD, take you Sand Dollar, to be my wife.

I promise to be faithful to you, putting you before all others.

I promise to always support you and respect you, take care of you, and provide for you.

I promise to always stand beside you, in good times and in bad,

And to love you all the days of my life.

Place this ring on Sand Dollar's hand, and repeat after me.

I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I take you as my wife before God.

Sand Dollar, will you repeat after me?

I, Sand Dollar, take you Mr. SD, to be my husband.

I promise to be faithful to you, putting you before all others.

I promise to always support you and respect you, take care of you, and provide for you.

I promise to always stand beside you, in good times and in bad,

And to love you all the days of my life.

Place this ring on Mr. SD's hand, and repeat after me.

I give you this ring as a symbol of my love and faithfulness, and with all that I am, and all that I have, I take you as my husband before God.

With these vows and rings exchanged, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss your bride.

Introduced for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. Sand Dollar!"

Did you have to write your own ceremony or vows? How did you come up with them?

Programs! Get your Programs!

2010-08-31T15:23:00.000-07:00

Our programs are done! One of the first things I wanted to take care of this past weekend was cutting and gluing the program fans. I started with some kraft paper that we cut in half, and then just printed out my program design on some cardstock I had laying around. It was grey, and while at first it sort of bugged me, I decided to just let it go. My STD's were printed on cream, invites on white, so I figured, why not just throw another color in the mix? The only time you'd ever notice would be if they were all laid out next to each other. So, it's whatevs.

I think they're really cute! We tied orange, yellow, red, and brown ribbons on them to go with our colors. The printer was pretty finicky to work with, but eventually everything turned out alright.

I decided to hot glue them after having flashbacks to how dizzy we got using spray adhesive for my friend's wedding programs. They seem pretty darn sturdy, so I think they'll be perfect for the day of!

Since we decided to forgo the chuppah and just create a backdrop, I now have two extra buckets. I thought it would be the perfect solution to pop in our programs! Cute, and in-theme. Now I still have to figure out what to wrangle our cards in...

Anybody else finishing up their programs? What do yours look like?

A Sand Dollar's Bachelorette - Party Time!

2010-08-30T19:31:00.000-07:00

Once we dusted off our work clothes, it was time to chow down! Since all my ladies had to travel upwards of 3 hours, we decided to keep things simple and cook for ourselves. And oh my goodness, what a good choice that was! We ate Bestie C's homemade lasagna and salad...

and then Bridesmaid N made what was possibly the best dessert ever. Tiramisu cupcakes!

And Bridesmaid S gifted me with food, which is totally the way to this gal's heart. I heart cannoli like nobody's business, so I was in heaven!

Yum-O! And what bachelorette is complete without a little lingerie? My fab ladies treated me to a lingerie shower! We played "Guess the Panty" and I had to answer questions about Mr. SD to get to open presents. I got 6/10. D is for Diploma right? :)

We had a couple of tuckered out guests...

But we refueled Sand Dollar style!

Mmmmm...love me some strawberry daquiris! We had to take a few prom glamor shots in front of the fireplace...

Then break in the fridge I had chalkboard painted just the day before!

Now it was time to put on our party hats...

And hit the dancehall! We spent the rest of the evening two-steppin' and practicing for the big day. Then we hit up a party Mr. SD was at and let the good times roll all night!

What kind of shenanigans did you get up to on your bachelorette? Did you eat out or slave drive your ladies to the bone and make them cook for you too?

A Sand Dollar's Bachelorette - The Craftapalloza

2010-08-29T20:44:00.000-07:00

This weekend I was blessed with the presence of six lovely ladies for good food, great conversation, and a huge amount of wedding crafts! We tackled pretty much everything on my to-do list, from programs to buckets. Here's a quick rundown of what I was able to snap a few pictures of:

Over 100 cans were painted. I finally decided just to nix the whole "hole" concept, and paint the cans so I can just plop in a tealight. We'll try to mix up the ones with holes throughout all the tables so it's not super obvious that we crapped out. Here's my paint crew hard at work:

We also threw some quickcrete into our buckets. The two orange ones with wooden poles are now our ceremony backdrop (we bailed on the chuppah and decided to just have the poles hold up my decorations, since I couldn't decide on a top, which will be way easier to pull off), and the red ones will be set up in two lines of six buckets to delineate a dance floor with string lights at the reception.

We'll paint the pvc pipes red to match the buckets, and pop in some fake moss or hay on top so you can't see the hideous gray concrete. After all this hard work, it was time for a quick refuel...

We ran out of soda, so dear Bridesmaid N took the Mettie off to the gas station for a supply run.

Always wear a helmet! We had a little help from these cuties too.

Once we were done with the wedding stuff, the girls decided they wanted to help contribute to the Sand Dollar household. Leaving a legacy was pretty important to them, and it's great to have a piece of each one in such a tangible way. So what did we all do? Well, we started out by busting out the power tools.

I raided my lumber pile, and we decided to build another Rustic Bench for the foot of our Farmhouse Bed. We all had a hand in building it, and if you have a group of crafty ladies, I'd totally recommend this as a fun project! It took about 2 hours and $15 of supplies. Such a little investment for a great experience that gives me something beautiful and useful to remind me of my ladies every day! Plus, I hadn't had a chance (or the funds) to buy chairs for the dining table we built, so this bench pulled double duty as a little extra seating for the evening's festivities. Check out all our handiwork!

Hooray! You can see it's buddy in the background. We're all going to sign the underside of the bench when we all reconvene the party for the wedding weekend. Then I'll sand, stain, and put it in it's permanent home in my bedroom.

That's one long Saturday, isn't it? We accomplished so much! But the fun wasn't over, next up, it's party time!

My Chalkboard Fridge

2010-08-28T15:25:00.000-07:00

After ogling chalkboard covered everything in magazines and blogs, I zeroed in on one idea that made my makeover list. A chalkboard painted refrigerator! You see, we inherited this perfectly functional yet oh-so-hideous hand-me-down fridge from G-ma. Also, all our other appliances were black, so I felt like it would be nice to have them match. Here's a quick before.

See? Nothing fancy, but nothing worth getting rid of, either. It works great, and looks like every other generic refrigerator. But after my big kitchen makeover, it's much more integrated into the room, and even has more function!

That's my grocery list on the front, and my wedding checklist is on the side. I still need to touch up the floor in the kitchen, but for now I'm taking a well-earned break. Here's how fun it can be, we decorated it at my bachelorette party!

How awesome is that?! It's super cute that all my friends wrote me a little message, and we relived our college doodling days. So there you have it. Take an old fridge and give it new life with just a pint of chalkboard paint!

Before and After: Kitchen

2010-08-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

The kitchen, oh, the kitchen. I broke my back over this room. It was the last big project for the house, and I wanted to finish it before my girls all came down for my bachelorette party. It would be the first time we had guests, and I really wanted it to look nice. I spent five days stripping the lacquer off the doors, priming, and painting FIVE coats of white paint to seal everything in. I still have to touch up the floor paint, and spray and reinstall all the hardware, but for now, I am done. I am done with you house! For now anyway. I'm taking a well deserved break. So here we go, for the pretty impressive before and after.

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After:

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After:

Finishing the kitchen makeover scraped off the last remnant of the old, outdated space. Now the entire house looks cohesive, modern, and country-chic! I'm so in love with everything, I can't believe how well everything turned out. I still have a lot of odds and ends that I have to take care of, but for now, I'd consider this house MADE OVER!

To recap what we did:
• ripped up the linoleum and painted the floors
• painted the walls and ceiling for the first time
• painted the trim
• took down old fan and light fixtures
• installed new lights
• repainted cabinets
• repainted refrigerator

Hard at Work

2010-08-26T21:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a little teaser of what I've spent the last five days doing...

Stripping all my cabinet doors, painting them, and painting the cabinets. It took a coat of primer and five coats of white paint. I've been trying to whip my kitchen into shape before all my ladies come in for the weekend to party it up before the wedding. We also did the ceiling, the walls, and chalkboard painted the old fridge. Here's a quick refresher.

Much better, eh? I have to finish putting all those doors back on in the morning before I take my quality pics. But for now, I say "Mission Accomplished!"

Last Month Left

2010-08-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

Well, it's about that time. After seven long months of planning, I've finally hit that 30 day mark. And guys, I can't wait! I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. This weekend my girls are all coming down to my house for a wedding craftapalooza. We'll assemble programs, utensil sets, pole buckets, and drill holes in exactly one million cans so we can paint them and be done with the centerpieces. It's gonna be intense, y'all! These next few weeks will be stuffed full of preparation and progress, I'm going to jump on the dreamer's bandwagon and draw up a little wish list of what I'd love to have, but can never happen.

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How I would adore a jukebox wedding. Papa SD is a huge fan, and has one in his office he plays every night. He even found another one for Mr. SD and I to enjoy, though it will play records, it's not fully functional yet. But how awesome would it be to hook this sucker up to the park sound system, load it full of records, and have our guests set the playlist? Um, yes please! But it's just not in the cards for us, no matter how much I wish it were so.

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A sparkler send off. Unfortunately we just don't have the budget for this. We're thinking more along the lines of birdseed, though one friend even suggested oats. Oats, huh? I had to stop and ponder that for a minute. Since rice is a huge no nowadays, oats seems to evoke the same sentiment of fertility and plenty. Anybody aware of negative environmental impacts of oats?

Favors. I'm the shizz at microwave bread and butter pickles, I'll toot that horn. In a dream world, I'd make a jar for every guest. But again, the budget says "No dice!"

There are dozens of other things I could rattle off that I'd love to have at our wedding. Signature drinks, real china, mason jar glasses (can you tell I'm obsessed with mason jars?) But not only have I learned to live without, I've thought up unique, crafty alternatives to the things I couldn't have. And you know what? Our wedding will be perfect.

What have you had to give up because of your budget? Did you come up with a great alternative?

Brainstorm

2010-08-24T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hive, I need a card box. It seems that the hick-town crowd ain't too tech savvy. We've had zero, count it, zero contributions to our honeymoon registry. And with us one month out from W-Day, I need to come up with a Plan B should guests decide to go straight for the source. So what kind of card box should I use that will fit in with our day?

My first thought ran to a pair of boots. Cute, yeah? It would totally fit in, but we'd have to have a sign of course. It seems people around these parts are pretty thick. Next candidate...

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A chic, large lantern. How cute is this? I love this idea. And Ross is a prime source of giant lanterns on the cheap.

Use one of our super cute buckets. Most of them are being used to create support pole bases for the chuppah and our dance floor area. But I could spare a couple for a little card catchin'.

What are your ideas for creative card boxes? Hit me up, ladies!

My Beauty Shop Bathroom

2010-08-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

So, it makes sense that if I don't have the budget for fancy cakes or rentals, then I can't afford to go to a beauty salon on my big day. NBD, I have a good plan in place. You see, I've got Bestie C. Bestie C is going to school to be an athletic trainer, with big plans to go on to med school to become the first female orthopedic surgeon for the Dallas Cowboys. And yet, she's got a card up her sleeve, with all that intelligence. Girl's a hottie, times four. And she's a whiz with hair. So guess who's doing my hair and makeup? This lovely gal!

Hey Bestie C!

She did my hair for our big engagement shoot, and I got what was probably the best blow out of my life.

Oooooh, pretty hair! I was in love with my hair that day. I couldn't stop flipping it around. When Bestie C and I started brainstorming wedding day style options, we started out with the typical bouncy curls, and maybe a side pony. Then, I looked back at my pictures and thought about how pretty I felt. And how it was the best looking "me". So, I decided, I'm going straight!

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It's soft, easy, and oh-so-me. A simple half-up hairdo, I'll emphasize the back with one of my lovely haircombs.

Then for the reception, I'll spice things up a little with a pony and some smoky eyes.

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Yup, I'm the bride rockin' gym-hair at her reception. And I cannot wait!! It's going to look great with my short dress and boots. And I'll be comfortable, and feel prettier than I ever have. What's not to love?

What kind of hairstyles did you choose? Are you doing a change-up midway too?

Guest Post: Bouquets with Meaning

2010-08-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

My Bestie S got married a couple of years ago, and had the best DIY wedding. It inspired me in a million ways for my own celebration. Recently she blogged about her bouquets, and her thoughts behind them. I admit I was completely surprised that there was more to it than just fitting in with her color scheme! Without further ado, take it away Stacie!

"I put a lot of thought into all the details of my wedding. Some were noticed, and others, I think, were there simply for my own pleasure. One of the things I was most excited about was the thought put into my bridesmaids’ bouquets. Each wonderful woman that stood by my side that day had a single-colored bouquet of daisies…Audrey had orange, Jamie had purple, Brooke had pink, and Mary-Claire had red. And from these happy little bouquets (because I think daisies are just very happy flowers), hung bright pink ribbon with each bridesmaid’s “title”: “Maid of Laughter”, “Maid of Creativity”, etc. (I didn’t have a maid of honor…I just couldn’t choose as I felt they had all poured so much into my life in their unique ways) My bouquet was a medley of them all in every aspect; it was a combination of all the colors and symbolically, of the characteristics each bridesmaid represented. I wanted to visually and creatively portray the idea that I am undeniably a mosaic of all of the people in my life.

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And so I write this as a tribute to all the truly amazing women in my life who are graciously contributing to the mosaic that is me. (There are wonderful men as well, but my lady friends :) and family shine brilliantly brighter) I am constantly humbled, challenged, inspired, comforted, and humored by the women I am surrounded by. I am graced by the presence of some of these women on a weekly basis while others I only see when all of the stars (read: our schedules) align. Regardless of how often we see each other, the women in my life mean the world to me.

These women love well, live loudly, and teach me to be a better person whether they know it or not. Each of their lives offers a lesson for me – work as if working for the Lord; find beauty in everything; dream bigger; be present where you are; trust in the Lord; love others with all you have; see the world, it can teach you more than you thought possible; be the future generation’s biggest fan and biggest inspiration; let loose; care for the sick; love orphans; create; be open to the blessing of change; follow your passions; give generously.

As I get older, I realize more and more the beauty and value of being surrounded by truly incredible women. I also realize that not everyone has that…it is something to be treasured and cared for. This tribute of sorts is my attempt to avoid taking these women, these blessings, for granted. I want to acknowledge them and thank them. I’m pretty sure you know who you are….I HOPE you know who you are…otherwise, I have work to do in telling you or showing you how much you mean to me."

Was there a detail that you've planned with more meaning than meets the eye? What kind of thoughtful touches are you including?

Before and After: Bathroom

2010-08-21T08:18:00.000-07:00

There's still a bit to be done with the bathroom (touch up the floor paint, sew a curtain for the vanity), but for the most part, it's been revamped. Let's take a look, shall we?

Before:

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So, to recap what we did:
• ripped up the old linoleum and painted the floors
• ripped out the old vanity and built our own
• repaired tile, and replaced hole with new sheetrock
• pulled down wallpaper and painted the walls, ceiling, and cabinets
• cleaned the toilet and tub within and inch of their lives
• installed a new light fixture

Sleek New Ads

2010-08-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

Things are changing around the InSwimwear parts. Instead of fancy cutouts, drop shadows, text and art, we decided to make things a little sleeker. Check out the new ads.

I love these. They're short, sweet, and to the point. They don't detract from the swimwear. It's striking, and I'm happy to put my name on it, even if all I did was add a little text. Sometimes, less really is more.

Bridal Cake Alternatives

2010-08-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

As you now know, my attempt at decorating a lovely wedding cake was a complete flop. So now what do we do? Well, to recount what we already have, there's:

A Groom's Cake

S'mores

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So we've got a lotta chocolate going on. And I'm so in love with s'mores that I'll probably eat fifty and wind up with marshmallow all over my face. Anyway, now that we don't have a wedding cake on the menu, I have to come up with some sort of acceptable alternative to cut and feed each other. We'll get the iconic photos as well as placate the FMIL. Or maybe I should just call her FML? Anywhoodle. I was totally on board with something like this:

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A super cute assortment of pies, all the ones I love. Pecan and apple and peach and buttermilk and you-name-it! We have $125 to go crazy with pie. Three dessert choices seems like more than enough. Plus, we can still put a very fancy-looking pie on a cake-plate and toss on our topper. That is, until I laid eyes on this baby:

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A rice krispy cake?!? For the realz? That's kind of the best thing ever. And it seems pretty darn simple to make, I'd just have to wrangle up containers of the right size to make the proportions look right. I'd want a circular one, of course, and most likely 2 tiers. Plus, making it is fifty trillion times easier than baking and decorating a cake. Let's make a comparison list, shall we?

Pie:

- long time favorite

- lots of flavor options

- simple and cheap to buy, pretty full proof execution

- big, fun impact

- still pretty unique

Krispy Cake:

- Still looks like a cake

- easy and cheap to make, but can still have something go wrong

- incredibly unique, I've never seen this in person before

I don't know, I'm so torn! What should I do, hive? Help me pick!

a) pie bar

b) Rice Krispy Cake