Wedding Place Cards

Ahh. Wedding place cards. I don't know what it is about them, but I'm in love. It seems silly to care about such a small thing when you think about the fact that people will only use them to find their seat, and they will be thrown away at the end of the night. At any rate, the are one of my favorite details in weddings. When they are all lined up in alphabetical order, it is just simply beautiful. Call me crazy, but I love it.

When my best friend asked me to make her place cards for her, I was so excited! And when she told my what she was thinking she wanted, I was jumping for joy (in my head of course, that would be too weird to actually jump for joy over place cards, right?)

As I'm sure you guessed, her colors were navy blue and yellow, not what you would expect from an MSU grad, but it sure was beautiful. 

In order to make these, you will need:

ribbon, card stock, regular hole punch, large fancy hole punch (from any craft store), wine corks, exacto knife, glue stick, and a printer.

Something that cuts straight is also very helpful.

Once I bought all the supplies, I spent about three afternoons at my best friends house. Her mom, aunt, and I worked until our fingers bled to get these done (kidding of course)

First, we cut the navy blue card stock 2.5 inches by 3 inches. 

Then, we cut the ribbon into 8 inch long pieces. 

Using a regular hole puncher, we punched to holes into the top, it doesn't really matter where, as long as they are somewhat near the center. Once we added the ribbon, you couldn't really see the holes anyways. 

The fun part was the wine corks. Holy cow, I swear my hands ached for days after cutting all 125+ corks. 

To get the corks to lay nicely, I cut each cork in half and cut a slit all the way across the top, rounded spot on each half. Each cork makes 2 place card stands.

The last part was the easiest, but it had to be done at the last minute, once every response card was returned and the seating arrangements were finalized. I simply typed up all the table assignments on my computer, printed them out and used my large, fancy hole punch to punch out each one. Then we used glue sticks to adhere them to the cardstock. 

**While you might not think the glue sticks will hold well, I promise they will. I tried using rubber cement, but it will make your pretty white paper look very dark due to the wetness of the glue on the navy cardstock.

Once they were all put together, we slid them into the wine corks and alphabetized them so they were ready to go. The whole process probably only took about 9 hours to make 250 place cards. We split it up into three afternoons, and it really was manageable. 

And look at the beautiful final product:

Totally worth it!

And I'm not kidding when I say I need someone else to get married now! Wedding crafts took over my life for a year and a half during my wedding planning days. I got a small taste of that again while making these place cards, and I'm ready for more. 

Apparently I should just drop out of school and be a wedding planner... a girl can dream right? 

Happy Friday!

Wedding Morning Playlist

A while back, I showed off the Engagement Gift Basket that I made for my dear friend. Included in the basket was a Wedding Morning Playlist that I created for us to listen to while getting ready the morning of the big day. When her wedding day came, we listened to it quite a few times. It was fun having songs that were so fitting for such a special day.

Here is the playlist I created if you care to use it. Scroll down to listen using Spotify.

While spending hours getting ready the morning of the wedding, this is the perfect playlist to listen to while sipping champagne, and getting into hair and makeup. All the girls will be singing along to these upbeat tunes while slipping into their gowns. 

Enjoy!

Bachelorette Party Fun

As I mentioned before, my best friend got married last weekend. But before we could let her get married, we had to celebrate with a Bachelorette Party!

No one will probably find it surprising that I was put in charge of decorations and anything crafty....which I loved. Here are some fun things I think no bachelorette party should be without.

1. Future MRS T-shirt

This is something that was at the top of my list since Jenna got engaged. And it turned out to be pretty simple to make on my own. I purchased iron-on vinyl (glittery pink of course) and used my Cricut to design the logo.

2. "He Put A Ring On It" Banner

Another simple Cricut project. I cut out the letters on sparkly silver cardstock and hole punched them at the top to slide the ribbon through.

3. Tissue Paper Garland

I got this idea after seeing Amanda's version of the tissue paper garland on her blog Happily Ever After that she made for her daughter's nursery. (view post here)

4. Glittery Wine Glasses

I used mod podge and all different glitter colors to make these. The bride got this silver one with the pink bow. Everyone else got to choose their favorite to use and then take home with them. You bet we were sucking our pink pantie droppers out of these glasses with our penis straws. Classy, I know. 

I had way too much fun doing all this. I should have been a party planner, because I absolutely love it. 

My Best Friend Got Hitched!

A week ago today, my best friend, Jenna, married the man of her dreams!
We made the 8 hour hike from Michigan to Iowa for a fun-filled weekend including the Bachelorette Party, Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner, some pampering, and best of all the WEDDING DAY!

I am preparing some posts next week in honor of her wedding, including bachelorette party planning, a wedding morning playlist, and the beautiful place cards I helped her mom make.

It's been a while since I got married, so I am excited to share some of the details of her big day since I got my start  blogging about my wedding day.

photo credit: Artsmith Photography

Isn't my best friend beautiful!? Isn't her new husband the luckiest man on earth?!

The answer is YES! to both those questions.

I can't believe how far we've come since we became friends in the 5th grade.

My Wedding Day: August 2012

Jenna's Wedding Day: March 2014

I am so happy for Jenna and am so glad I was able to be there for her on her special day. I know for a fact that she will make the best wife and mother around. 

One Year Anniversary!

It is crazy to believe that one short year ago, I was sitting in the church waiting to see my handsome groom, and anxiously awaiting the moment I became MRS. Adam Muszynski. I never could have imagined how incredible our wedding day turned out to be. It was a day full of love, laughs, and dancing and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

This past year has had it's extreme highs and a few depressing lows. Our relationship has been tested more times than I ever wish for anyone in their first year of marriage, but we have managed to survive it all. I truly believe now more than ever that we can make it through anything, and we have only come out of our first year that much stronger. 

Adam, if you are reading this, I hope you realize that you mean the world to me. I wouldn't have been able to make it through the past year without you by my side. You are my rock, my best friend, and my shoulder to cry on. I am so lucky to be able to spend the rest of my life with you! 

Here's to one year down, and a lifetime to go!

The Anniversary Series: The Wedding

It is so hard to sum up our wedding in just one post, but I will try my best!

When we were planning our wedding, the most important thing to us was that it be FUN! Adam and I have so much fun together, so we thought it was important that on our wedding day, everyone have fun with us. When the morning of the wedding came, I never felt nervous, not once. I could not wait to see my groom standing at the end of the aisle waiting for me, and I could not wait for him to see me in my beautiful wedding gown. 

After months of planning, the day had finally arrived, and I could not wait to be MRS. Adam Muszynski!

I spent the morning with my girls getting my hair and makeup done and dancing and singing "Going to the chapel and we're gonna get married" over and over and over. When we arrived at the church, I slipped into my gown and got pictures taken with my bridesmaids. I was then tucked away into our bridal suite where we cracked open a bottle of wine and relaxed. My flower girl ended up running into the room with a letter from Adam, and as I read it I thought to myself  "I am the luckiest girl in the world to be spending the rest of my life with this man."

I remember peaking through the curtains of the bridal suite and watched as guest after guest was seated thinking "Wow! All of these people are here to see Adam and I get married." And before I knew it the bridal party was lining up, and I was about to make my grand entrance. 

As I stood at the back of the church, I couldn't keep my eyes off my handsome groom. It took about 2.5 seconds for the tears to stream down Adam's cheeks. The ceremony was over in a flash... quickest catholic mass ever, at least for us. All of a sudden we were kissing and making our way back down the aisle as husband and wife!

We took pictures right after the ceremony and finally had a few moments to ourselves (well almost) during our private photo session. It was great to have some "alone" time, but the bridal party was waiting for us and the reception was about to start. 

We were welcomed in to the reception as Mr. and Mrs. to the song "I Gotta Feeling" and the song could not be more fitting. We did things a little differently and cut the cake before dinner, and as you can see, we got more on our faces than we did in our mouths. 

We shared our first dance together to "Then" by Brad Paisley. It was one of those songs that we knew the first time we heard it that on our wedding day, it would be the song we would dance to. Our time together on the dance floor was amazing. While all eyes were on us, it was great knowing that it was the first time all day we were able to converse without anyone hearing us. The song was over before we knew it, and we joined our bridal party at the head table.

The night only continued to get better from there. The toasts before dinner from our best man and maid of honor were seriously the best! I know that's a crazy thing to say, because who wouldn't think that one their wedding day, but both really did a great job of embarrassing Adam, complimenting me, and keeping the crowd laughing.

It wasn't long before dinner was over and everyone, and I mean literally EVERYONE was out on the dance floor. Remember when I said we wanted the day to be fun? Well it was a freaking blast. We hired a band from our town called CEYX and they play anything and everything. They knew how to get everyone on the dance floor and how to keep them there. The dance floor was full the.entire.night.

Overall, we had a fabulous day. It was perfect in every single way and we could not have asked for anything more. We got hitched, we were surrounded by family and friends, and we had an absolute blast! In fact, it was so much fun we have received multiple requests from wedding guests asking if we could throw another party like that for our anniversary every year. 

I really don't feel like I did our day justice in this post. It is hard to sum up the best day of our lives in just a few short paragraphs! If you would like to read more about our day, check out the following posts:

Our Wedding: Before The Ceremony

Our Wedding: The Ceremony

Our Wedding: The Reception

Our Wedding: The Details

Also, come back tomorrow for the fourth and final post in the anniversary series: the honeymoon. And in case you missed any of the other posts in our anniversary series, you may view them here:

How We Met

The Proposal

The Wedding

The Honeymoon

Wedding Wednesday: Programs

So you know how I told you in my last post about how I was no longer blogging about the wedding and I was starting to focus on other things? Well, scratch that, I lied! There are still just a few wedding projects I want to still show you guys!

My wedding programs were probably the most time consuming of all the projects I decided to DIY, but with that being said, I think they were also my favorite. 

To make this project, you will need:

a lot of scrapbook paper and plain cardstock, ribbon, wallet size pictures, glue sticks, and a few extra helping hands. 

Our programs were four pages long:

Page One: Cover

This page was made of cardstock and measured 5 inches long and 4 inches wide. We put a wallet-sized engagement picture, our names, and wedding date on the cover page. 

Page Two: Special Thanks

This page was made with scrapbook paper, measuring 5 1/2 inches long and 4 inches wide. We added cardstock as the border, and it also seemed to make the page a bit more sturdy.

On this page, we thanked everyone for being a part of our special day and traveling to be with us, as well as our parents for all the love and support they have given us throughout our lives.

Page Three: Wedding Party

This is where we listed our Wedding Party and their relationship to us, including maid of honor, best man, bridesmaids, groomsmen, and flower girl.

The page measured 6 inches in length and 4 inches wide. Once again, we used a cardstock border to make the pages sturdy.

Page Four: Ceremony

We used this page to list the order of our mass, as well as the readings we had chosen for the mass.

And in case you haven't pick up on the pattern yet, this page is 6 1/2 inches long and 4 inches wide.

One thing we needed to pay special attention to while making these was the space at the top and the bottom. At the the top, we needed to leave enough room to punch holes and tie the ribbon. At the bottom, we didn't want any of the purple border to show when looking at the cover. 

We used a glue stick to adhere everything except the picture. For the picture, we used rubber cement. When everything was glued down, we put one of each page together and punched two holes at the top. We used 12 inch long black ribbon to tie the bows.

And this was the final product:

On our wedding day, we had them sitting on the front table of the church. I also had some of my cousins pass them out as they greeted our guests coming in. 

At the church:

and here are some of my fantastic cousins passing them out...

it looks like some of our guests enjoyed them as well...

Well there you have it, our Handmade Wedding Programs!
I would love to hear about how yours turn out if you decide to try this!

Wedding Wednesday: Table Numbers

Better late than never, there are still a few fun wedding projects I want to share with you all. We wanted to do something unique for our table numbers, so we decided to design our own.

We dug out all our school pictures and decided to incorporate them into the table numbers... each one corresponding to our age in the pictures. It worked out perfectly! Once we got to age 18, we were able to use pictures of the two of us together. 

We bought black frames from Dollar Tree, and printed our creations at our local Meijer. (NOTE: if you plan to do this, you may have trouble printing because of photography copyright laws. Make sure to do it in advanced just in case. This is the last thing you want to be worrying about the week before your wedding, and yes, I know this from experience).  

Here are pictures of most of the table numbers:

And here is what they looked like on our tables at the wedding:

I loved the picture idea, it was a great conversational piece. I think everyone enjoyed it whether they were Adam's guests, my guests, knew us when we were little, or met us in college.

What did you do/want to do for your table numbers?
I would love to hear your great ideas!