DIY Burlap Wedding Banner

*Yay for reposts!! Check out the tutorial below that we utilized for our head table at the wedding!!*

Alright ladies and gents! Here it is! So apart from Halloween being Friday, Shane was on base all weekend so I was left at home to my lonesome (sorta, Clay was home too), but I don’t take my time to myself for granted! I have been- for the past two weeks now- just stock piling on the materials to get a few wedding decorations in order and all planned out.

My top items, get the banner done and then the centerpieces underway. Don’t worry, I will post the DIY for the centerpieces as well this week. Also, how I am keeping all of these mini projects organized to equal the big picture in June!

Of course the majority of my ideas stem from Pinterest, my savior. Well this little tutorial I followed came from rusticweddingchic.com , where there are seriously so many DIY I have to put on my restraints before I get sucked into the site. If you are a DIY bride like myself, check it out for inspiration!

Materials:

(And these vary depending on preferences)

• 15 ft. burlap (Hobby Lobby – $7.99)
  • I chose an already banner sized roll of burlap so as to reuse for wrapping the cutlery and centerpieces (coming soon), plus much easier than a huge roll in my own opinion
• Acrylic white paint (Hobby Lobby – $4.99)
  • You can choose other colors, depending on your style and preferences, creativity is encouraged!
• X-ACTO knife
  • I just used a razor blade that I had at home, but for safety and precision go for the X-ACTO knife
• Scissors
• Paint brush
  • See notes below
• Printer and printer paper for letters
• Twine (12 ft. min)
• Wax paper

Directions:

1. Type up your Mr & Mrs text on Word, choose any font and any sizes you would like, of course making it large enough to encompass enough room on the banner. Print it out.
   1. I cannot for the life of me remember the font I chose, I browsed for at least 40 minutes before deciding on this font. I know it is just a font offered through Word, nothing especially downloaded. I think the size ended up being around 300.
2. Use your X-ACTO knife to cut out the letters so as to create your stencils.
   1. Shane actually did this for me, he used to do window tinting and has a much steadier hand than I do, plus he used a plain razor blade. It was sweet really, he did it while I was at work!
3. Next, line up your stencil in the burlap to get a gander at how much space you want on either side of the letters.
   
   1. This is where the burlap banner roll came in handy, it was already the size I needed, I didn’t need to do any ironing from folds, and just had to then cut with the scissors.
4. Then, cut your burlap into six squares, just overlapping the squares so as to have the same sizes.

   

   Sorry I’m a little blurry !

5. Once you have your squares you can now lay your stencil down to paint. 
   
   1. I was in our kitchen, and of course I did not want paint getting onto our table, so I put wax paper underneath the burlap. I chose wax paper because after each square I could just wipe off the paint and lay down the next piece without wasting a ton of paper in the process.
6. Paint each letter.
   1. I didn’t use a paint brush, I used a sponge, it is hard to paint burlap without snagging the material. I dabbed instead used the painting sponges, same effect, just less hassle.
7. Once complete, let air dry for at least 15-20 minutes.
8. Lastly you will want to run your twine through your banner.
   1. I have not done this step yet as I ran out of twine for the Halloween party, I will post an update once it has been completed!

*On a few side notes, this is a very easy project and literally took me maybe twenty minutes with all the supplies already on hand. It turns out AWESOME and I was skeptical before it had fully dried that you wouldn’t be able to see it but you definitely can!*

You can also find this tutorial as well as many others by clicking the icon below! My first link-up party! Let’s see how it goes!

Tip: After cutting the burlap you will notice it begins to unravel, pull some of the strands off the sides so it won’t continue to unravel on it’s own. It gives it a more worn and frayed look anyways. See here for further details! If you get the roll instead of the yards it will eliminate the burlap from unraveling on the top and bottom as it is already sewn! 🙂

Hope you all enjoy! More DIY to come!

 

DIY Wedding Envelope Liners

Man am I glad that our wedding is over with! Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful and all things amazing, but being a DIY bride is some stressful business! Today I’m throwing it back to the invite process for our wedding back in June, giving this gem to all the new DIY brides out there, my little sister being one of them!

When all was said and done I had to keep reminding myself that envelopes for letters usually end up in the trash. Unfortunately that’s the bitter truth to it, but even so I put so much time and effort into making the envelopes for the invites as personalized as possible. I didn’t do it for anyone else but myself, it was a fun project, a bit time consuming but hey, at least I only ended up having a little under 40 to do!

My first calling when it came to writing out the invites was Pinterest, and from the beginning I originally believed I had to do about 85 invites so I was NOT about to be handwriting that many invites! You must be CRAZY. For those of you brides out there that DO have that many to address, I highly suggest this link here. She was able to print directly on her envelopes, a method I also tried but failed at. None of my printers I attempted to use were up for the task apparently, but clearly it is completely doable!

So, instead I finally came to the realization that I would be writing out 85 invites, when THANK ALL THAT IS HOLY, I found out I only had to do 36! Huge sigh of relief! But of course, with DIY comes great responsibility and some major mistakes.

First step was to find out how in the world the proper way to address the invites were, where I came across this lovely and very helpful item on Pinterest. You’re welcome.

Second step, create your rough draft of what you want your envelopes to look like. I modified a few different styles from Pinterest and added my own twist to them. Clearly, calligraphy was out of the question with no printer access to speak of, so I had to rely on my own creative abilities and unsteady handwriting. Of course for any rough draft you do it in pencil, to not do so is just idiocy on your part. Third step, is that once you are satisfied with your rough draft, it’s time to darken this baby up. Now, this is where I should have done more research as to what kinds of thin pens and what-not there were out in the world, before just going on ahead using a fine tip sharpie, which I already had laying around at home. Don’t get me wrong, it came out awesome and I LOVED it. Well, my envelopes were not any fancy colors, they were just plain white. What happens when you put a sharpie onto white paper? Yes, it bleeds through. Now don’t freak out! Yes it bled through, but not to the extent where it went all the way through. Just enough to be completely AWFUL looking on the inside of the envelope, something I was NOT okay with seeing.

Fourth step, RESEARCH. Well now you have to come up with a solution to remedy the awful looking insides of the envelopes, when you come across info on envelope liners. Praise the Lord! But wait, now a Michael’s trip is in order to get the supplies needed for this DIY project. *Sigh* Then on top of that trip, you try and skip a step from the instructions and purchase a pack of already sized liners from Martha Stewart instead of creating your own from scratch…which you end up having to do anyways. This is the first time Martha has ever failed me! I guess her size A7 envelopes are actually different than the ones I had, because her liners DID NOT FIT. Great, that’s what I get for trying to take the easy way out!

These are the little buggers that didn’t fit -_-

So, with my impromptu template that I was planning on using being a complete waste of $3.99, I had to create my own. At least the packaging supplied me with the cardboard I used to make the template.

Materials:

• Ruler
• Double-sided adhesive tape or glue sticks
• Pencil
• Cardboard / chipboard / heavyweight cardstock
• Whatever paper you want to line your envelopes with
• Xacto knife
• Cutting mat/board to protect your table
• Envelopes

Directions:

1. Take one of your envelopes and trace it onto the cardboard / chipboard / cardstock.

   

   As you can see, I actually traced mine on the actual paper first. It was much easier to cut through concisely, I then transferred these final measurements to the cardboard, instead of trimming down the edges on the cardboard first.

   

   After I did all of the trimming off the paper and tested slipping it into the envelope, I then transferred the final measurements to the cardboard template.

2. Cut your template from the cardboard.
3. Cut 3/4 inch off of the bottom of your template, and 1/8 inch from each side. These trimmings allow the liner to slip easily into the envelopes.
   
4. Trace the template onto your envelope liner papers, making sure to do so on the back of the patterned side. 
5. Cut out your liners using the xacto knife. 
6. Next, you can insert the liners into your envelopes.
7. Use your tape runner/glue stick to secure the liner to the flap.

   

   A trick I figured out, is to fold the envelope over at the flap with the liner in it. The crease will help out immensely when it comes to securing tape to the flap

   

And ta-da!! You now have beautifully lined envelopes!!

I purchased 4 different styles for the liners, as Michael’s did not have enough of each to do them all the same. The best part though is that on each sheet you can use up the scraps to make liners for the RSVP card envelopes as well, which I also did! Using the same method as above will give you the same results when it comes to the 4bar sized RSVP envelopes!

These liners definitely brought some new life to my invites, I may start doing this with all my cards! On average it took me the weekend to complete this project, but mind you that was also writing out all the addresses as well!

Don’t forget to have a snack! I would suggest wine, but for the sake of not spilling DO NOT have wine!

You can find the original tutorial I used here! Oh and ignore the picture qualities, we’re still trying to improve our photography skills over here!

Happy DIYing!

 

 

 

 

FYI: I purchased our invites from weddingpaperdivas.com , there prices are SUPER affordable and it was fun to play around with the design templates and make them your own! I highly recommend new brides to get on their mailing list! I still receive coupons from them, which I’ll definitely need for the “thank you” cards that I still have YET to send out…I better get on that!

 

The Top 8 Most Annoying Questions You Get Asked As Newlyweds

So hubby and I have been married for 99 days as of today! Put into day terms, that’s a lot longer than some celebrity marriages! In my book that means we’re off to a great start! As all newlyweds can agree, you can get some really annoying questions after you’re married. So as a kind of warning to all of the happy couples out there, you WILL get asked these questions, and it will get more and more annoying the more the days pass. I wish I could tell you when these questions finally end…but we’re clearly not at that point yet, but don’t worry I’ll make sure to follow-up when I know!

1. “So how is married life? Does it feel any different?”
   1. It’s great I guess? In all honesty it feels no different, but we have been building a life together for the past 4 years….I mean I don’t want to kill him yet, so I guess that’s good? I mean honestly do you really care?
2. “When do you plan on having kids?”
   1. We JUST got married, children are terrifying and stinky. I like having a clean house, clean sticky-free walls and a full 8 hours of sleep every night. I think we’re good right now. Besides, I have my pups and they’re much easier to handle than a child would be.
3. “Are you sad that it’s all over and there’s nothing to look forward to now?”
   1. Well aren’t you a bundle of joy! Do you really think there is nothing else to look forward to in life now that we’re married?! I couldn’t be happier that the wedding is OVER with, that was too much planning, too much stress, and while it turned out beautifully I am so THANKFUL that it is done with. The amazing thing right now is that we don’t have to make plans, it’s AWESOME. We’re relaxing, enjoying each other’s company, there’s plenty to look forward to, and all of it is much less stressful!
4. “Are you excited you can gain weight now?”
   1. What is wrong with you people? Is marriage really viewed as an excuse to NOT take care of yourself?! If I don’t feel attractive within myself how could I ever feel like my husband finds me attractive? So the quick answer to that is, NO! I am not letting myself go just because I’m married, if anything I’m going to drag him along with me to a healthier and happier lifestyle. Marriage is not an excuse to gain weight and become unhealthy. Plain and simple.
5. “I could never get married at your age” 
   1. This one is more of a statement than a question, but a statement that nevertheless I don’t rightly care to hear. Of course you could never get married at my age, you’ve been single since I’ve known you! That’s great that you feel that way, good for you, but that’s YOUR life. Not mine. So please, keep the comments to yourself.
6. “Don’t you want to travel?” 
   1. Actually we do, thanks for asking! Does everyone just think that once your married you can’t go anywhere? That you’re just going to sit at home for the rest of your life? It is POSSIBLE to travel with someone else…not just by yourself. Most people travel with their best friends…well jokes on you, I get to travel with the ultimate best friend..oh and with benefits for the rest of my life!
7. “Does it suck you won’t have any time to yourself?” 
   1. I have more time to myself than I know what to do with. I mean we do have jobs, and his hours are the complete opposite of mine. If you add together all the hours that I have to myself it equals to about a days worth of so-called “alone” time, and no I do not wish I had more of it. Call me crazy but I enjoy spending time with my husband.
8. “Does it get annoying that you have to share EVERYTHING now?” 
   1. I didn’t know sharing a last name meant that we were all of sudden required to share EVERYTHING. It’s not like we’re one massive blob of a person, we are still each our own person. It’s a complete misconception that everything is shared, but hey if I’m not too hungry at dinner I have my reliable hubs to go halfsies on a meal with me…you don’t see restaurants having special priced meals for “one” now do you?

So please I’m begging you, if you have any friends or family members about to tie the knot…DO NOT ask these questions, but regardless of what I say the questions will still be asked, the rude statements still be made. But at least now you get to sit at home watching Netflix reruns with your spouse, laughing and joking at all of the stupid things everyone else says. Jokes on all of them, because you’re both awesome.

 

The Top 10 Hacks to Staying Stress-Free Before Your Wedding Day

Every bride-to-be is just LOADED with unintentional stress, it just bogs us all down and you feel overwhelmed over every single little detail when it comes to your big day. I mean who wouldn’t be!? We only dream of this day as little girls, being told nonsense stories about our Prince Charming….and I say this out of complete love for my husband. But real life Prince Charming…he IS NOT, but he is perfect for me…but he definitely doesn’t break into song about is never-ending love for me. JUST saying.

When it comes to weddings, especially my own – which was a complete DIY for the most part – it can get really stressful but I somehow managed to get through my catastrophes just as all brides do/will! So here are my 10 hacks, that personally got me through all the stress of wedding planning!

1. Exercise: I cannot stress this one enough! Most brides out there already want to lose the pounds to look great in their dresses, and honestly it will be your saving grace. It’s pure bliss to look forward to going to the gym after work, to just have an hour or so with no obligations to your phone. That can all wait, this is YOU time. Your own personal haven to let go of the stress caused by work, wedding planning, life…it all just flits away for an hour and will leave you feeling much more at ease to take on the remainder of your night.
2. Drink Water: This might sound like a super pointless hack but it’s really not, I turned to water ONLY for the 9 months prior to the wedding. The average person should be drinking at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day, when figured out that’s 4 water bottles a day. You will not believe how much better you feel once you cut out carbonated and sugary drinks. Not only does it make your exercise easier and more efficient, but you’ll feel more energetic to take on your day. Even post wedding I have continued this regimen, I drink roughly 7 bottles a day! Of course you can still have your cock tails when you want them, but the water will help you feel less bloated, on top of that it will clear up your skin!
3. Talk Through The Stress: Do not bottle up all of your worries! You don’t want to be the bride who implodes on herself come the wedding day, or explodes onto those around her. Make sure you talk to your mom, dad, siblings, your fiance, your MOH (maid of honor)…these people are all here for you when you need them! You may feel like you don’t want to burden them with all of these little details and problems, but trust me, you will feel better just by talking through your stress. On many occasions after I spoke to my mom, or mother-in-law, any one for that matter I would feel a weight just lift off my shoulders and would shortly after find the solution to the problem I was venting about.
4. DO NOT TRY TO MAKE EVERYONE HAPPY: This item is so important to keeping stress to a minimum. My engagement lasted a little over a year, and in the first six months I tried to appease everyone else. Tried to plan around what was easier for everyone else instead of what was easier for me. DO NOT DO THIS! This is your wedding day, do what you want, what will make you happy, and do not feel bad for those decisions. You will not be able to make everyone happy, always remember that it’s not your job to do so and you will have saved yourself so much unwanted stress.
5. Remember You Will Hit Bumps Along The Way: Try as every bride might, there will always be a bump along the way. We had multiple bumps, from the cakes melting prior to being set out, to the flowers not opening in time, to our lunch not arriving on time….I could go on. But there is no way that you can prepare for EVERY single scenario. Do not waste your energy trying to fix those problems before they ever happen, because who can guarantee that they will anyways? The best thing you can do is stay positive and realize that every wedding has a bump. You will find a solution!
6. Delegate: Make a list of the people in your wedding party and delegate tasks to be done before, during, and after the wedding. This helped us tremendously, but it also helps that our MOH and Best Man clearly were the best for the job! Do not be afraid to ask for help! This was a huge weakness of mine, I thought I could handle everything by myself, but it wasn’t until a month or so beforehand that I started asking for help, and I received all the help in the world. I honestly do not think the day would have gone so smoothly had I not asked for the help and delegated certain tasks to everyone in the wedding party. Delegate! It will save you time and with that saves you the worry about not completing everything on time!
7. Get Pampered: This one should be a no-brainer, as most brides and their bridal parties go out the day-of or day before to get their nails done, hair, makeup, well we didn’t go that extensive. But getting a pedicure the day before helped my stress levels tremendously! It was nice to just be with my best friends, my mom, my sister, and even family members who tagged along. Being with all of these important people really just sends your happiness through the roof and completely distracts you from stressing over the last minute details. Enjoy this time getting pampered with everyone, it’s not every day you can get together like this.
8. Enjoy The Outdoors: Being outside is freeing, you don’t feel enclosed in a box, you have the freedom to really breathe when you are outside. We spent every afternoon outdoors on the lake as soon as the summer months hit. On top of being able to enjoy the company of your significant other, you’ll get a nice tan going too. I actually purchased a tanning membership  once summer hit, and only actually went twice! Just going outside and spending time with family and friends I was able to get a good solid tan before the wedding. You will benefit more from the great outdoors than you will laying in a tanning bed, I can guarantee you that much!
9. Stay Organized: Keep a binder or notebook with all of your important wedding details! I had a little notebook I carried around with me everywhere during my planning process. I also took advantage of Wedding Wire, by far the best when it came to keeping the guest list in check and to search my area for vendors. Keeping everything in place and setting deadlines for yourself to accomplish things that need to be done will not only alleviate stress, but it will make you feel better checking off those to-do’s. I bought a fancy “The Knot” binder from Barnes & Noble when I first started planning…I never used it once. It overwhelmed me more than it helped me. Organize based on what WORKS for YOU!
10. Remember The Big Picture: Being a bride is stressful, remember that you will always find cool ideas on Pinterest, there will always be a “better” looking set up…remember you theme and YOUR vision. As a bride you can get side-tracked A LOT and change your mind A LOT. Always remember what your style is, and stick to it! When it comes to your big day you don’t want a jumbled up combination of 10 different wedding themes. Keep focused on your ideas and stick to them, because it will all come together at the end when you do.

I hope all of you brides out there find this list helpful, but also remember, at the end of your big day the ONLY thing that matters is that you get to marry the man of your dreams. Remember that, and I can guarantee you a stress-free wedding day. Once you walk down that aisle and stand before him, NOTHING you were stressing about before will matter.

Happy planning!

 

 

Wedding Day Count Down

I have been absent from writing as of late…due to the fact that…oh yeah, my wedding is a little over a month away. So we have that going on, and we’ve also been in the process of trying to buy a house, which unfortunately fell through as of late. But hey, it just wasn’t meant to be then! Am I upset…well a little, but now I am straight back into stress mode. I know I made a pact with myself at the beginning of the year not to get too stressed out over things….eh, that lasted all but five minutes.

What sucks even more is that I continuously take photos of all of my new healthy meals  that I’ve been preparing as of late, but just haven’t gotten around to posting them, I swear I’m not slacking!! Everything else in my day-to-day life is just taking over right now, so be prepared for after the wedding and I post a ton of recipes and DIY’s…I’m just saying, you have been warned! Of course I’ll take a ton of pictures of the whole wedding process and add that as well, giving you every detail I possibly can without boring you to tears 😉 Did I mention that I managed  to pull off a budget wedding of $5000?!? Yeah..surprised me too! I can go more in depth on that later, but in the mean time…it’s back to Pinterest!

BTW, if ANYONE knows how I can edit my signature to get rid of the little shadow box around it, it would be much appreciated! Google has never failed me before this 😦

 

Vacation Blues

Every time we go on vacation I end up sick, EVERY SINGLE FRICKEN TIME. This past weekend we finally made a little weekend getaway to Florida where of course we were running around non-stop. Well upon leaving on Sunday I procured a sore throat that has led to a severe sinus infection…basically I am drowning in my own mucus right now. I’m not that person who goes to the doctor very often but this puppy has been so awful that I actually caved and went in yesterday, mostly because I was super worried it could be strep, which I am notorious for.

Well thankfully it wasn’t, nope just a sinus infection which still sucks to no end, and with my little prescription for good health in hand I went to pick up my drugs and the pharmacy closed before I could get my grimy infected hands on the cure. I AM MISERABLE….but in other good news at least it happened after all the festivities of the weekend, which included both Bachelorette Party and Bridal Shower. Yeah we were all so hung over and exhausted from the night that we were not the brightest bunch for the shower….but it was the most fun I’ve had in a LONG time…only four more months to go!!

I’m only starting to freak out a little bit! Check out below for some pictures of the weekend!! Hope you’re in better health than I am at the moment!

Bachelorette Party! (btw apparently bachelorette isn’t even a real word according to my computer)

They made me my own #hashtag!

 

The best Maid of Honor a girl could ever ask for!

Bridal Shower!

There are so many more pictures, but even after going through these ones I can’t help but be a little jealous of the picture quality coming from my sister’s Iphone 6….if anything could push me back towards Apple it would be that.

xoxo, Bee

Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Recipe

I’ve been doing so awesome lately with not indulging in my pasta fetish and sticking to my meal plans! Well….this week I just had to have it, I know it’s all mental but I made sure to only have a small bit, I promise!! Besides, I have to make sure I keep trying these recipes out so you don’t have to, see, I’m just helping everyone out today!

Check out the latest recipe for Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta here! Oh, and it’s Harry Potter series time again, so if I haven’t been keeping up all too well I have been stress working out, with the wedding now 4 months away, invites sent and very little else I can do at this point other than wait for RSVP’s, then reading to occupy the rest of my brain’s free time, I may be a tad late when it comes to blogging. But don’t worry, everything will start picking up again…and I couldn’t be more thrilled/terrified/stressed/many other emotions.

Doesn’t help that I am completely OVER winter, just bring me Spring already, this girl needs to get her tan on before the big day! Clearly by my latest nail attire I am hoping for Spring to come!At least in the next two weeks we will be relaxing in Florida, FINALLY getting a little mini vacation away from work for a bit. Can’t wait to see everyone! Until next time!

xoxo, Bee

Let the Stress Commence

Wedding planning has officially started, well picked back up…this is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because Shane isn’t being deployed! And a curse because this has to be one of the most stressful experiences of my life thus far. Honestly I don’t think it’s that stressful when you live in the same state as your mother. My mom is seriously the back bone to this whole planning process, I mean she’s been through it before and knows how to plan much better than I do. I’m more of  the go with the flow personality, and have never been one to get plans in order.

For me it’s just been a much harder experience because I am doing it all by myself, and I have a problem with not being able to just focus on one item at a time, I try to tackle them all at once, so of course nothing ever gets accomplished. So, now that everything has been put back in to focus, I have to create a minor checklist for myself just to make sure I’m not over-thinking everything. Make sure that I take it one step at a time and not lose sight of what tasks actually have to be accomplished.

To take my mind off of everything else, I started working on centerpiece ideas again. Trying to coordinate my vision is actually a much harder task than I previously expected. So I began the prep work and tested out a Pin in the process! I was tired of scraping the labels off the bottles, as I did here. So of course I turned to Pinterest to see if there was a faster way…and here it is:

Directions:

1. Fill your sink with super hot water
2. Add the following ingredients:
   1. 1/2 cup baking powder
   2. 1 tbsp dish soap
   3. 2 cups white vinegar
3. Next, add your bottles, letting them fill completely and sink down
4. Let them sit for about 30 min- 1 hour

Notes:

The water will fizz after the mixture is all put together, don’t worry it’s supposed to 😉 I also only let mine sit for about 15-30 min before I started rubbing the labels off. One bottle in particular had a much stronger adhesive (the Gentleman Jack bottle) and I left that one in for over an hour to no avail. I will have to take a razors edge to that sucker. But the labels came off  the Jack bottles easily. I had to touch them up a bit with some nail polish remover and a cotton pad to get the extra residue off.

Thoughts:

All in all the magic concoction cut my time literally in half and I got two bottles completely label free instead of just one at a time. Definitely a huge time saver! Plus it made my sink sparkling and smell really clean, which to me is a huge two for one. Now I just have to decide on the staining/painting options for the bottles…sigh…so many options!

Naked bottles! Forgot to take a pic once the plastic labels are off too..oopsies

Here is where I found the original concoction! From  the blog Healthy, Wealthy & DIY’s! Now I’m more  than depressed I don’t have a gorgeous kitchen like  the writer Amber…one day!

Hope this magic formula can help you all out with  your current or future DIY’s!

 xoxo, Bee