Something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue for a thrifty and Green wedding

When my husband and I started planning our wedding we both had a few goals in mind.  My goals were to create a beautiful, memorable event that was as environmentally friendly as possible.  My husband’s goals were to keep it within our budget and keep it green as well.  To meet both our goals we worked hard to make as much as we could on our own and before we purchased anything we asked ourselves, “Can we re-use this in the future?”  Simple as that sounds it was vital to us that we be able to either reuse or recycle the majority of what we used in order to minimize our wedding waste.  If you have never planned, hosted, or cleaned up a wedding before, you may not realize just how much is thrown out after the big day.  From decorations, to food, to wedding attire that is only worn once, there is an excess of waste generated from the wedding industry.  Even if you are not interested in keeping your big day green, you should be interested in saving green, and all that waste can equal a ton of wasted money.

In order to help you out in both areas here are some things we used to help us for our wedding and for some others I’ve helped out with in the past. 

Something Old…

(Bible borrowed from Grandma O’Key)

Chances are you know someone who has had a wedding or another big event in the last few years.  Think back on their decorations, serving pieces, or accessories anything you liked?  Perhaps your family has pieces passed down that would give a personal touch that a new piece could not.  Ask them if they wouldn’t mind lending it to you for your big day.  Obviously you will treat this item with the utmost care, so that you can return the items better than when you borrowed it in the first place.  This is especially true when borrowing accessories the bride might have worn, or heirloom pieces, these are items to be treasured and possibly passed to another bride in the future. 

We did this in several areas; the brooch that secured the ribbon on my bouquet was my grandmothers and my sister used it for the same purpose in her wedding.  My husband wore his father’s cuff links, my sister let us use her cake serving platter and cutting tools from her wedding, we asked our officiate to hold my husband’s grandmother’s bible,  some of the tables were covered in borrowed linens (everybody has white table cloths, ask before you rent).  Not only did this help us save money, and decrease our wedding’s carbon footprint it also included our loved ones in our big day and created lovely traditions our family can share.

Something borrowed….

(Rented columns, chairs, and sashes)

Renting is another great way to reuse items that you wouldn’t normally use again in the future, i.e. cake stands, silk arrangements, chairs, table cloths, lighting, giant columns, etc.  Unless your planning on redecorating your home and the homes of your friends and families in a your wedding decor, consider borrowing or renting items like these to save you money and sanity after your day is over.  Remember whatever comes up, must come down and either be thrown away or put away.  No one has room for a hundred silk centerpieces, or wants that many. 

Most towns have at least one, and this can be a great resource for those supplies.  Some rental companies even offer delivery and pick up, which could come in handy when you’re renting tables and chairs for a large event, but you have no access to a truck.  Of course depending on how far away your event is from their warehouse there will be a charge for delivery, but with everything you will have going on that day, this is something to consider and can be well worth the expense to save you precious time and sanity.

 

Something New…

(New pieces; flower tins, branches, and pumpkins that can be reused in the future)

 

One of the great things about weddings is that no two are a like, that can also be a bad thing when trying to decorate on a tight budget.  You’ve already exhausted all your resources from recently married friends and family, and you can’t afford to rent all the pieces needed for your vision.  Luckily if your somewhat crafty, or know someone who is, you can make your decorations using existing repurposed pieces at a fraction of the cost! 

Luckily a big trend right now in decorations is branches and twigs.  Florists have been using these in arrangements to create visual impact in normally ordinary arrangements, and so can you.  We used this concept for some of our aisle decorations that doubled as our centerpieces.  Branches can be purchased at most any craft or home decorating store, but if you’re really thrifty, and a little outdoorsy you can make them for free if you go get your own from Mother Nature.  Again, I’m sure it goes without being said, but I’m going to say it anyway, please do not go chop down your neighbor’s trees, or worse yet a tree in the park.  I know how the wedding frenzy can take over, but just because it’s the biggest day of your life, does not give you license to go crazy and hack apart your mother’s beloved magnolia.  She won’t appreciate that, and niether will the poor tree, try to use some restraint.  I suggest looking in your own backyard, ask friends and family that have some wooded property or in my case I pruned my uncle’s weeping willow for him and saved the branches.  Everybody wins!  I will note that the orange blooms seen in the picture shown above are not original to the branches.  In my own personal mania to create the perfect wedding I wired silk flowers to the branches.  If you would like to know how or are interested in a tutorial, message me and I’ll get to work on that!    

We also used a mix of pumpkins on the tables and scattered throughout, for these I purchased forever pumpkins from craft stores, not my cheapest decoration for as many that we used, but they will go to good use for all of our fall decorations.

 

To keep your pocket book from getting Blue from spending…

(Chair sashes used to dress up plain metal chairs)

A few quick tips;

-Reuse all those wedding gift bags to corral all your essential items (shoes, accessories, makeup, rings, vows, etc) for you and your wedding party to keep you organized for the big day.

-If your venue has chairs, but they’re not the prettiest (metal chairs), instead of renting the fancy ones that will cost you an arm and a leg.  Consider renting chair covers, or even just the chair sashes to dress them up.  No, it will not make them as nice as the expensive rentals, but you will find that once people fill the space and the chairs, no one will notice that they’re only metal chairs.

-Lanterns, lanterns, lanterns!  These are a great way to add instant impact for oh so little dough!  And, if you take good care of them you can use them over and over again for other events!

-Hold onto that scrap fabric if you are having anything custom made, my clever sister used the extra fabric from the flower girl dresses and even some from her wedding and made fabric flowers for wrist corsages and hair pieces for the wedding party.



Just remember, that while this will be one of the biggest days of your life, it is after all just a day.  And when it’s all said and done you will walk away that day with a partner for life, and hopefully beautiful memories of your loved ones that came to support you.  Those things are far more important than any decorations, clothes, or accessories worn during it.  So don’t stress my lovely bride, do what you can, forget about what you can’t do, and soak up every second of this beautiful moment.

Chalkboard Signs

Since I have a few projects in the works, but no results to show yet, and I’m just itching to post about something crafty.  I thought I would tell you about one of my new latest craft/décor obsessions.  Chalkboard paint!  This stuff is AMAZING!  There is nothing you can’t do with it, it turns boring fixtures into amazing pieces of retro art.  And is a great way to label things in an unexpected way. 

My first endeavor with this was for my wedding, we had a big crowd and the ceremony and reception was taking place at this big beautiful old building that had two floors that we rented with all the usual weddingy hot spots spread throughout the building.  So in order to keep my guest happy and the staff of helpers sane I wanted to clearly, but cutely mark all the areas to keep everyone in the know.  Solution: the chalkboard sign!  These are huge right now, especially at weddings.  And with all their great uses for the day of and after, why wouldn’t they be? 

It’s pretty easy to create these handy little guys, and with all the wedding crafts I had on my plate, this was one of my favorites because they were so easy!

My supplies for this project:

1 quart of chalkboard paint (a little goes a long way, I still have at least half left even after this project and several others)

Thin board cut to size

Frames

Chalk

Tools

Sponge Roller and paint tray

Hand sander (You sand it the old fashion way, but try to get your hands on a sander to safe you time and energy)

Medium to fine grit sanding sheets for sander (depending on how textured your board is)

Measure your frame and cut your board to size (carefully measure the inside of the frame and make sure it has a little wiggle room, as it is much harder to make a solid piece of wood fit in a snug frame than it is to fit a picture).

Sand your board till it’s nice and smooth, if you can feel any grooves keep sanding. 

After you have a smooth surface to work with, dust off all remaining dust or grit with a slightly damp cloth or paper towel.

Time to paint!  Make sure your can is well mixed and pour it in the tray, again a little goes a long way so unless your project is huge, refrain from dumping the whole can in!

Apply the paint with a clean sponge roller.  For the first time I did this I used a regular roller and it turned out ok, but you will have much better results with the sponge roller. 

Give it one even coat rolling in one direction, and at least a second in the opposite direction.  You will probably need to apply a third, but let each coat dry completely before charging into the next coat.

Once you have a few coats on and dry, give it a spin and draw or write with some chalk!  If you notice a lot of friction when applying the chalk and you can’t get the chalk to make a fairly smooth line, your probably going to have to sand that bad boy down a bit more.  Don’t beat yourself up, I did this the first time too, I get a little to excited sometimes and skip out of the beginning steps, you can just sand right over the paint (dry paint), switch to a finer grit of sand paper if need be, and try again.

Now, try your chalk again.  Is that better?  Good, don’t try to make whatever it is your writing/drawing perfect for your final project perfect, cuz your just going to wipe it all off anyway.  Don’t argue with me, it say so on the can, and if you argue with a can you’re going to look pretty silly.  This gives it that nice old classroom chalkboard look.

After you’ve done that, you can pop it in the frame.  You can do this before the last step, but you will not get that blended in classroom look as well up to where the frame meets the board, and you might get your frame dirty.  But this is your project and you can do with it as you will, which is usually what I do, and then go back and try it the other way later.

Now write something inspirational, lead your people with your magnificent direction sign, label with reckless abandon.  It’s up to you!  You are now the proud owner of a chalkboard sign!

Hello!

Hello, my name is Dana, and I am a first time blogger.  I’ve always wanted to do this but for quite sometime felt that I couldn’t because I couldn’t focus on just one topic, I am interested in everything.  I love making crafts (a trait I have learned from my Grandma on my father’s side), I love hair and makeup (I get this from my Gammy, my Mother’s mother), I’m fascinated with green living, especially when it comes to repurposing items that normally would be trash (that comes from my Dad), and I love gardening and cooking (that’s my Mom/sister), but I’m a pretty slow learner so theres a lot of trial and error in those departments.  Luckily I have a loving husband that supports me in all my endeavors.  Oh, did I mention that I love planning, entertaining, and throwing parties, and all things Halloween and Christmas?  That would be from my loving, slightly eccentric family, who also supports all my crazy dreams and ideas. 

And all these wonderful people make me who I am, which is a wife, step-mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, aunt, granddaughter, and friend. 

So as you can see, I’ve got way too much going on to just blog about one select topic, so I shall blog about it all, because that is what fuels all of us; family, friends, home, earth, beauty, health, love.