Meet the Maids

   Before I got engaged, I had the perfect idea of how to ask my girls to be in the wedding.  I had picked out t-shirts I wanted get for them and had the perfect "Meet the Maids" party planned. Unfortunately, I'm a tad bit superstitious and felt that doing all this before we got engaged would be a jinx. Even though I knew it was coming someday, I had no idea when, so I held off on planning anything. 

   Fast forward to one Friday night in April and we've just gotten engaged! All of a sudden, it hit me that I'm seeing 3 out of 4 of my friends that I want to ask to be in the wedding and I'm not prepared with anything to ask them. So instead I casually ask my girls to be in the wedding and decide to plan a special night out for all 5 of us in the next month.

   I decided to order the t-shirts I had been eyeing and make up goodie boxes for the girls. I found these great boxes at Pat Catan's that fit my vintage theme.

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  I filled the box with a bunch of goodies:

- Mini bottle of Champagne

- MAC Lipstick

- Hand cream 

- Masks

- Nail polish

- Nail File

- Smashbox primer

- Hand sanitizer

- Tissues

- Personalized T-shirt

- Crystal snowflake suncatcher

- Personalized compact

- Mini calendar

- Magnet and card with a list of all the girls contact information

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  I searched high and low for a little bag to put all the little goodies in and finally found a set of 5 bags on eBay for under $10, what a deal! I hit up MAC and had my very good friend find lipstick colors for each girl, and boy did she do a fantastic job picking the right colors! I made t-shirts for all the girls on Bridal Party Tees, which had the cutest t-shirt designs by far! After I had most of the goodies for the boxes, I hit Vistaprint and made magnets and cards for the girls, and these cute little invitations. 

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 I mailed out the inviations and awaited our fun evening out. I waited until all the girls arrived and then... they got to finally open their boxes! I was so excited, and all the girls were even more excited. I wanted my girls to know how much I appreciated them.  If there has one thing I have learned through being in weddings is show your bridal party how much you appreciate them. Being in a wedding is a ton of work, and your bridal party is glad to help, we are there to help, but it's a two way street. There is nothing worse than a bride that demands the world and gives nothing in return. A little love goes a long way! What kind of things have you done for your bridal party? Have you asked your girls to be in the wedding in cute ways? Had a get together dinner for everyone to meet?!

DIY Sunday

   So I love arts and crafts, but don't do them enough. Like a lot of people, I have great ideas but just don't take the time to actually do them. I decided that having a wedding was the perfect reason to start doing some DIY Projects.

Image via Yay Life

   I am not doing a ton of DIY projects, but I have told myself I will absolutely follow through on all the ideas I actually have. About a month ago, I decided I didn't want to do programs. We're having our ceremony and reception all in one place and I just found programs to be unecessary. I do think that people really like knowing who everyone is in the bridal party, so I decided I needed some type of "Program Alternative". Cue Pinterest! 

Image via Twitter

   I had previously seen these adorable "Meet the Maids" and "Meet the Men" collages on Pinterest and just loved them!

Images via Pinterest

    I though these were just great! So I set out to find the perfect picture frame. Of course, this lead me to Amazon where I bought this

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   It was perfect! There were 8 spots for the bridal party and one large photo for a picture of Mr. C and I. I decided I needed to paint it white, since well it's a winter white wedding! So I sent Mr. C for some spray paint and the next sunny and rain free day I painted the picture frame.

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  It took a lot of spray paint, I'm talking a whole can here, but I eventually got it right, after about 4 coats!

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I couldn't be happier, it looked like it was actually supposed to be white! So today, Friend Nutz and I hit the brand new Pat Catans, so exciting! We had the best time and crossed a lot of things off the DIY List. I had an idea to put foam letters on something and attach it to the back of the frame. Friend Nutz suggested getting some foam board and covering it in fabric, genius idea!! So I picked up these great foam letters that had adhesive on the back, that was a double score!

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  So after a quick stop at Joann's I had some white fabric with snowflakes an was ready to start putting this together. I had gotten some spray adhesive and sprayed the foam board and fabric and laid the fabric down and smoothed out the wrinkles. Next I had to figure out the perfect placement for the letters, which is easier said then done. After cutting the board down to the right size and covering the edges with fabric, I was ready to place my letters.

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  So this is what I ended up with... not bad, not great... But how in the world was I going to attach this to the back of the frame? Screws? Hot glue?? I started to think and realized, this was a fail... So I sat down on the couch and started thinking. Then it hit me, the letters had adhesive, why didn't I just put them right on the picture frame itself? Just like the ones from Pinterest right? Great idea!!

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   It's a little hard to make out everything, I'll update you all with a photo once I have the blurbs about the bridal party; but this is so much better! Much easier than trying to attach the foam board in some magical way. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out and glad that I got one more thing crossed off the list! What are you guys doing for your programs? Will you have programs? Going to subsitute them with something else? Will you be doing something special to introduce your guests to your bridal party?!