Only a few weeks left until our walk down the aisle… (19 days if you want to get specific. HOLY COW!)
Here’s a little of what I’ve been up to lately:
I decided we needed some simple wedding programs. But with not much time left to order things, I would have to make them myself. Easy enough, right? Why not take a little break from RSVPs and seating arrangements to do some crafting.
I printed these on 8.5 by 11″ card stock from Michaels. Their card stock packs go on sale pretty often, if they’re not at the moment, there’s always coupons from their website or their app.
I made our program in Microsoft Word. The trickiest part was leaving lots of spacing between all the text so that it doesn’t look too crowded. First, I set all the margins for my page to half an inch, then I made the document two columns. In order for the borders to be spaced evenly once I cut the page in half, I made the distance in the middle, between the two columns 1 inch wide.
Then type in all your information. Names, date, location, officiant, musicians, parents, wedding party, etc. On the back I also included an explanation on why “for like ever” is a reoccurring theme at our wedding, along with a thank you to our guests and parents. Also, in order to avoid this, there’s a section asking guests as politely as possible to turn off their cell phones and take fewer pictures.
I used the same font from our invitations for the headings, and used periods at the top to marks spaces for me to hole punch later on.
Once I was finished, the word document was 2 pages. Page 1, both columns had the front of the program, and both columns had the back on page 2. Like this:
Because the card stock is a standard size it fits easily in the printer. I printed a few copies of page 1, turned the paper around and put it back through the printer to print page 2 on the other sides.
Once everything is printed, it’s as simple as cutting down the middle of each page with a paper trimmer. I have this one from Fiskars, which I also grabbed with a coupon from Michaels a while back. The markings and ruler on the cutter make it really easy to make precise cuts. Then I hole punched the dots for the ribbon holes and tied a neat bow with some gross-grain ribbon. The ribbon was actually a great score from the dollar store.
One down, 150 more to go.
If you decided to have a go at it yourself, and you’re struggling with formatting things, just send me an email or (leave a comment) and I can send you my template to get your started.
When I was looking for prints for my baby nursery, there were just SO many options. But when I came across the vintage inspired prints with a modern twist over at A Vintage Poster, I knew they were the one! Here is a picture of the 8×10 prints which we were able to color coordinate with the rest of our baby boy’s nursery.
I enjoy the fact that there are a lot of typography-based prints (yes, I am a typography nut!). But really, there are so many inexpensive options for your own wedding. Whether you’re looking to commemorate your wedding day, display your favorite quote at your wedding reception or ask them to create a custom print for you, there are just so many options.
Today’s wedding captured by HAZYblur Creative wasn’t at all about tradition. No first dance, not many speeches, no head table or a wedding cake. But it didn’t matter because the bride and groom wanted the night to feel more like a “really cool party, where two people got married”. And you can totally tell it was a blast, held at a unique wedding venue, the Chicago Chophouse Restaurant in Calgary filled with loads of DIY details. I am in love with the fact that the formals took place in a charming antique store considering the snow storm that day. Enjoy!
From the moment we got engaged, everyone kept asking “What’s the theme of your wedding? Do you have colours? What do you mean your bridesmaids are choosing their own dresses?”. I could never answer, I didn’t know how to please the masses. So my answer became, “We’re just not having that kind of wedding”.
So what kind of wedding would we have? Definitely DIY (though sometimes I just wanted to take a nap), non traditional (we walked down the aisle together, and saw each other pre-ceremony), eclectic (homemade decor that included books, old sheet music, and shreds of fabric tied to ropes to make “columns”), and YUMMY (I love food SO MUCH!).
We planned our wedding in six months. We decided immediately to do our best to make it easy on our friends and family, and on ourselves! To us, this meant that our bridal party would choose their own attire (we asked them to try to keep it generally neutral, but that was their only guideline), and we would have the ceremony and reception in the same location and one immediately following the other. We loved the idea of not having to travel between locations – it would be November, and in Calgary, that could mean SNOWSTORM…..and it did just that.
Our “first look” was magical. Jordan didn’t seem too surprised by what I was wearing….he said “It’s exactly how I imagined you would look”. He also couldn’t resist taking his own Iphone photo!! Even though we had two professional photographers catching every moment!
Did I mention that it was a SNOWSTORM the day before our wedding?? The sun finally came out on our wedding day, but not before it snowed a TON and was FREEZING cold that day. Having our photos done in the afternoon, I was terrified of the red nosed picture we were sure to have…..INSTEAD we headed to a favorite antique and salvage store of ours called UNIQUITIES. I think Nicole and Meg (our photographers) nearly died of joy. Here was a huge building, full of amazing antiques, warehouse windows, and lots of corners full of “stuff”….there was just so much stuff! We waltzed in like we owned the place, and Julia (the owner) greeted us with hugs and smiles. We had so much fun, and we we’re even married yet!
We are pretty much the most fortunate couple on the planet. Our best friends (one of whom is my cousin, the other was one of my bridesmaids) own a restaurant. And not just any restaurant, a beautiful, BIG, high end Steakhouse. We knew the minute we got engaged that we would have our wedding at the Chicago Chophouse. We were married in the evening (6pm) and the reception followed immediately. Our guests arrived to a romantic, sexy candle light atmosphere where they were served a freshly squeezed vodka lemonade (squeezed by the bride herself!) and enjoyed a cocktail before the ceremony. Live music was really important to Jordan, who is a musician himself. So we had a three piece band for the cocktails pre wedding and the ceremony.
I’m not sure I had any exact inspiration. I love white, cream, gold, silver, grey….anything neutral. So this became the basis for all the decisions. The feeling was light and airy while still sexy and romantic. I surfed wedding blogs and pinterest for ideas, and truly my mom (decorator extraordinaire!) was my sounding board. She has amazing taste and really helped shape the way our day would look. We thrift shopped for old silver platters, we made fabric columns to frame the ceremony location, we used Etsy for accessories and invitations, my best friend lent me dozens of hard cover books for centerpieces, and the floral arrangements on the tables were hand done that morning by our moms and friends with flowers from Costco. It was a group effort to pull off our day :)
We were married in front of their amazing Wine Cellar, which was decorated by my girlfriends with all our homemade decor. During the ceremony, the guest could stand around us, we were literally circled with love. It was still important to us to have a traditional (ish) ceremony. That’s what a wedding IS….the ceremony is what makes you married. We had a lovely officiant who asked us privately some personal questions, and shared our answers with our guests during the ceremony. We also took a moment during our ceremony to look around at all the faces of the important people who were there to celebrate with us, this was my favorite part of the evening…..so emotional.
The wine flowed all night long, the vodka lemonades were gone and every spec of food was finished! We partied until 4am and closed down the restaurant ourselves. Some of us even climbed up above the front entrance to ride the huge decorative bull that night. Guests left with a bag of kettle corn (made by the bride) and mini homemade pies (dutch apple, pecan, lemon meringue, strawberry rhubarb), as if they hadn’t had enough to eat :). We loved our day, and our guests did too – everyone left with full bellies, and smiles on their faces. You could just feel the love. Sigh. I wish I could do it again.
Processional Music: Kissing You, love theme from Romeo and Juliet by Desree’
Registry Signing: Marry Me, Amanda Marshall
Recessional: All You Need Is Love, The Beatles
Brides Dress: Bridal Couture Designs
Bridesmaids: ModCloth, Anthropologie, American Eagle Outfitters
Grooms Suit: Le Chateau
Photography: HAZYblur Creative
Photography venue: Uniquities, Calgary
Photo both: Mia Nelly Photography
Officiant: Abby Charchun
Bouquets and Boutenniers: In Bloom, Calgary
Hotel: Hotel Le Germain, Calgary
Ceremony and Reception Venue: The Chicago Chophouse, Calgary
This is a styled shoot with real life couple Lloyd Williams and Nicki Graham. The pictures are taken at Lloyd’s home in the Hollywood Hills. His band, The Cold Start, is currently recording there. The pictures of Lloyd playing music for Nicki are taken in the recording studio in the home. Nicki’s dress was purchased at a vintage store for only $5 dollars!
Photographer: Elizabeth Mercer Photography
Veil: David’s Bridal
Red Shoes: Guess
Make-up: Dior
Submitted via Two Bright Lights
