Personalized River Rocks

Using organic elements in weddings is very popular right now. Earthy tones are often surrounded by branches, moss, and river rocks. I came across SJEngraving, a local Bay area vendor on Etsy, that had a very unique product. They will individually laser engrave river rocks.

I can imagine these being used as escort cards. They could engrave the table number right on the rock. Or, if you want to be able to have more flexibility in making table changes, you could put the rocks in small bags, using a tag to mark the table number.

Unique Wedding Keepsake

It has always been a family tradition to purchase an ornament each year as a reminder of whatever of whatever happened that year. We have collected ornaments from out travels and toremember important events. Decorating the tree allows us to reminisce and share memories. I knew that I had to find a special ornament from our first year as a married couple.

Then, I had the pleasure of discovering Camille from her Gorgeous Redhead Etsy shop. She makes custom ornaments based on pictures of the wedding cake. Check out the amazing job she did on mine.

My cake:


My ornament:


Camille is so talented. I can hardly wait for next Christmas to pull it out!

Rockabilly Wedding

I am working with a client that is planning to have a rockabilly wedding on a budget. Here are a few of ideas so far:

Color Scheme: Black, white, with a hint of red



Inspiration Board:



Bridal party: In Converse

Hair - 40's pin-up style, with a birdcage veil or flower

Getaway car: Something 50's. I am currently researching options.

Centerpieces - Classic Coke bottles with a simple flower inside.

Candy Bar - filled only with nostalgic candy (Abba Zabbas, Root beer bottles, Atomic Fireballs)

Menus - Made to resemble classic diner menus, using art deco fonts

First dance - swing dance

As a bachelorette party - Pin Up

Website!

My website is finally up and running! At this point, it is really simple, but I am so pleased to have something to start advertising. I love weddings and event planning, so I hope that this will lead to many more opportunities for me. Check it out!
www.pinkpetalseventdesign.com

DIY Thank You Parasol

Make your own painted parasol to use for photo opportunities. Think of all the varieties. Write "Thank You" on one and pose with it for your thank you cards. Write your initial on them and give them to all your bridesmaids or the guests. Write "Just Married" or your new last name on one and use it for a pretty picture. It is actually an easy project that can be completed in one evening.

Materials needed:
White (or another very light color) paper parasol. I got mine from www.lunabazaar.com
Acrylic paint - any color can be used, but darker colors show up better in pictures
Paint brushes - I suggest one medium and one extremely thin one
Computer and printer
Scotch tape

Directions:
1 - Type whatever you want on the computer in extremely large letters. To make it large enough to look right, it will actually print larger than a piece of paper. Don't worry about that. Just tape the pages together until they fit. I found that I also needed to bold the letters to make it look right.
2 - Tape the word to the underside of the parasol. Play with the placement until it looks even.
3 - Use the extremely thin paint brush to trace the letter outline. Then use the wider paint brush to fill the letters in.
That's it! At times, there will be a little guess work, but it really is just that simple. No one will probably see your parasol from up close. I noticed a few small details that I got off, but you cannot see them in photos. Good luck!

**Note: This article was also posted as a Project Wedding guide. **

Photobooth

Many people have mentioned a desire to have a photobooth at their wedding. It is a great way to loosen people up and preserve fun memories of the event. However, the cost is prohibitive to many people. They are often $1500 and up. However, it is possible to do it DIY for less:



1) Create the setting. Find a nice pretty fabric that can be strung up between two trees, across a corner of a room, or between two PVC poles. Make sure the fabric is not too busy - either plain or sith a slight pattern look best. You can go with the photo booth traditional colors of maroon or black. Or you can choose a fabric that matches your wedding colors. Make sure that the fabric is dark. Most photos will come out better that way.



2) Collect props if you want silly pictures. Hats, boas, sunglasses, and other props make for great pictures. This picture is from a hat party we attended, but I can imagine items like this in the photo booth. A great time to buy these items is right after Halloween.


3) Decide on who you want to man the area. Perhaps your photographer has an assistant that can be stationed here. You can also check Craigslist for a new photographer who might be willing to do it for free or for a low cost. Maybe you have a set of friends you want to have run the area during happy hour. It is possible to do a photobooth with a tripod and timer camera as well, but this might discourage people who are not comfortable with technology to use it.

4) Determine the outcome. You can save all of the there digital pics and print them later. You could upload them to a group photo account, like flickr, so that your guests can print off the pictures that they are in after the wedding. You could also have a photo printer right there. Make sure you have additional ink and photo paper. You could also provide scrapbook pages for the pics to be glued on. Set out stickers and colorful markers that people could use to decorate the pages as your guest book.

Using children in the wedding

I have been asked before about great ideas of how to use children in the wedding. Often times, people don't have just one girl and one boy to match the traditional flower girl / ring bearer role.

Other ideas include:

Carry a sign -I have seen "Here Comes the Bride". At HolyMolyMatrimony's wedding, on Project Wedding, a boy carried a sign that said, "Run Jason Run". So cute!

Serve as acolytes

- Read a prayer. With practice, even smaller children can help with this.

- Be fairies

- Carry the lasso, trece arras, or other ceremony items

- Boys can pass stemmed flowers out to the ladies sitting along the aisle

Others want children to carry traditional items in an unusual way.

- Girls that are too small to understand dropping flowers can carry several oversized stems

- Small boys can carry tuxedo clad teddy bears with a ring sewn on the paw

- Oversized rings can be carried. This adorable one was made by Nidia112 from Project Wedding. It will be such a great photo!

- Carry a set of books in a ribbon sling. Budoh from Project Wedding used this adorable set from StyleMePretty as her inspiration (Viola and Phillip's):

She chose one of her favorite children's books and made this precious look:

- Ring orbs

- Items can be used the carry the ring that match the theme of the wedding, for example a baseball glove or a large shell

- A wedding that I am working in a few weeks has a minor theme of bicycling (an activity that they enjoy). The ring bearer will be riding a tricycle down the aisle