Step Right Up to the Bar

One of the many joys of getting married is getting stuff.  Yeah, yeah, that statement is dripping with consumerism, but it's basically true.  Nearly everyday, we arrive home to find a box full of something that we wonder how in the world we ever lived without.  For example, how did we live each day without a Flavor Duo Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream, and Sorbet Maker?! Or this gorgeous stand mixer?

I know that Pete has certainly asked himself how he ever lived without a Pete-sized wonderland of packing peanuts...

Every high has it's low, though, right?  The resulting low of our friends' and families' undeserved generosity is our utter lack of space.  We've not even walked down the aisle, and we're already stashing kitchenwares on top of the cabinets, in our entryway, in storage.  Which leads us to a delightful before and after...

Michael is a bit of a cocktail fanatic, which means prime real estate in our kitchen cabinets is taken up by all varieties of liquors, vermouths, bitters, hard-to-find liqueurs, etc.  We've long wanted a bar cabinet for the living room, but felt we lacked the space.  As I continued to see the kitchen cabinets fill up and reached the realization that we very, very rarely use the collapsible table bolted to our wall, we determined that if we found a modestly-sized credenza, we could make this happen and free up much-needed space in the kitchen.

Rarely-Used Collapsible Table

Once the decision was made, it only took a few days before we found and purchased this perfectly-sized little beaut on Craigslist for $60:

BEFORE

It was in great shape and probably didn't really need anything at all done to it, but it was just too traditional for my taste so I painted it and changed out the hardware. After a weekend of work that included 5 coats of paint and a ruined manicure, here it is today, successfully housing all of our bar needs:

AFTER

   

Print, Cut, Punch, Assemble, Repeat

In all the projects that I've undertaken in preparation for the wedding, the one that may ultimately be the most time-consuming is the programs, which is actually quite surprising.  Programs seem to be the one wedding item that even the least craft-savvy people DIY for their wedding days.  I will admit that I think I have made this task out to be much more complicated than it needed to be.  Naturally, I just couldn't settle for your standard book-fold program.  I just had to take it the next level....with rounded corners.

I began by finding a few programs whose construction intrigued me...

Source: Style Me Pretty

Source: Hello Tenfold via Merriment

Using the same methods I employed for both the save-the-dates and the invitations, I took my inspiration, made it my own, and designed the program in Microsoft Word.  What followed (and continues to follow...) is hours of printing, cutting, punching, and assembling, but I honestly think that it's totally worth it.  I think they're adorable, and (bonus!) if it's hot, they work as fans!

Mandatory Accessory

After a longer-than-intended break from blog updates, I hope to be able to say that I am back on the path to more regular posts, but we shall see if I actually hold true to that. Before I jump into my latest projects, I would like to provide a few excuses.

First, it's summer!  I love summer, and it always keeps me busy, busy with fun trips, warm weather, etc.  And this summer has been particularly full...bachelorette parties, showers, etc.

My awesome friends visited me in DC for bachelorette party fun.

I received awesome homewares at my bridal shower in Tennessee in July.

Michael and I excitedly (/awkwardly) opened gifts at our coed shower in Tennessee in July.

Second, my projects of late have mostly focused on gifts for bridesmaids and groomsmen, so those must remain top secret (with one exception...see below).  I was actually reading a little article on The Knot the other day entitled "Wedding Planning Basics: 10 Biggest Wedding Planning Blunders to Avoid." When I reached #7, I just had to laugh: Telling Everyone About Your Wedding.  Oops.  Oh, well.

Third, our computer has just about pooped out. It is so full that Michael has forbade me from adding any more pictures to the computer, so this has really been a thorn in my blogging side.

Without further ado, there is one bridesmaid gift project that I am able to share prior to the wedding.  As I've discussed previously, I have asked each of my bridesmaids to wear a blue dress of their choosing so that they can each express their own sense of style with no stipulations regarding shoes, jewelry, hair, etc.  Well, wouldn't you know, my egomania got the better of me, and I decided that I just had to force them to wear something that expresses my sense of style (plus, I just thought it fun/appropriate to make them something to wear since I'm also making the groomsmen something to wear).  In the end, I decided that fascinators would be just the thing to infuse a little of me into them.

I had actually originally planned to just buy them fascinators off Etsy, but of course, as I looked around, I kept thinking, "I can make that!"  So I did.  I ordered some supplies from various Etsy sellers (feathers, buttons, and hair clips), and in what was an almost embarrassingly short amount of time, I whipped up six of these little guys:

Don't worry.  No surprises have been ruined.  I thought it might be a little rude to just pop this mandatory accessory on the ladies the night before the wedding, so I've already shared these pictures with them so that they can think about how they might want to wear their hair.