First DIY: Card Suitcase

I fell in love with alternate ideas for collecting gifts/cards for a wedding. As we are only registered for a honeymoon fund (through honeyfund.com), I figured we could mostly just use something to collect cards at the wedding. Rather than paying someone else to make one for me, I figured I could create it myself. This was my inspiration:

Source:Pinterest

I happened to find an old suitcase at a vintage shop in town for $25.

I have a vast collection of random fabrics, both vintage and new. I found something that worked with my wedding plans. I then modge-podged the fabric into the suitcase because there was no lining in it at all.

I finished that and moved on to the lettering. I printed out large letters on my printer, cut them out, traced them onto my cardstock backwards and then cut those out (so my tracing lines are on the back since my cutting isn't so great). I glued them onto some twine, added ribbon from my ribbon drawer, put some old light fixture plastic beads on and then decided it needed glitter.

Here's a close-up of my work.

All I have left to do is attach some removable hooks to the inside and I can hang my sign across the top. I also found a perfect piece of crocheted doily to lay across the bottom. I was pretty proud of the work I did over a weekend on this.

All in, this project only cost me the 25 dollars I spent on the suitcase. Everything else I already had at home. This is when my craft supply hoarding will pay off. I have been collecting odds and ends of supplies for years for no apparent reason, but this project just proved to me why I do that. It really is worth it. :)

Making my Dress Form

As a hobby seamstress, I have this unquenchable thirst for flashy sewing accessories. For example, I worked one season as a stitcher at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, MO and got to use some awesome machines such as a serger, a really expensive Bernina, and an endless supply of dress forms. Adjustable dress forms, one-size dress forms, dress forms with legs...you get the idea. I was in a sower's heaven (is it sower or sewer?) Unfortunately all of these bells and whistles cost way more money than I can ever dream of dropping at any one time. Instead I have my handy Brother sewing machine my parents went halves on with me for my undergraduate graduation present on. That sewing machine has survived three overseas trips and is currently living with me in New Zealand. I also have the use of a Bernina Bernette 65 until my FSIL decides to move back to NZ and claim it. Thanks Charlotte!

I drool over the dress forms available at Spotlight every time I go there but I still can't imagine dropping that much cash for something that still won't be my exact measurements.

Now with my wedding dress drawn up, I realize I really cannot possibly drape, pleat and fit my dress the way I have been doing all this for the last 10 years- by myself on myself. Uh-uh...not happening. So we made a dress form at home. We didn't take photos in the process of taping me up (mostly because they would have been incredibly inappropriate since I couldn't find any shorts to wear and the tape pulled the shirt up higher than it was supposed to. But here's the run-down of what we did:

1. I put on a shirt and covered my neck and collarbone area with plastic wrap.

2. Jeff used three rolls of tape to capture my figure. The first roll of tape was plain packing tape. The next two were duct tape.

3. We underestimated how much tape it would take, and Jeff went and found electricians tape to finish out the body-taping job.

4. By this point there wasn't enough tape covering my collarbones, but we were out and I couldn't breathe deeply because of how tight the tape job was.

5. Jeff cut me out of the tape shirt Phew, I could breathe again!

6. We put my form over the homemade music stand Jeff had in the spare room and I left it for a day since we had no tape.

7. I went out and bought more tape and came home to finish the dress form.

8. I then covered my pretty form with some leftover fabric so I can pin to it.

9. I must have checked my measurements against the dress form 10 times...they're pretty close except for my overbust measurement. The dress form is about 4 inches broader there than I am in reality. But it's okay because the final fittings of my dress will be on me, not the form.

So am I happy with the work we did even though it's a bit trashy and not quite right? Yes because what I need this form for is to drape and look at pieces before I sew...and that's what I can do with Betsy (I just gave her that name...she needs a name, right?)

Wedding Philosophy and Inspiration

On Thursday night we met with our officiant (Yay! Exciting...and it's feeling more real now!) and she asked me to describe the vibe of our wedding. Well, I had shown up to our meeting with a rough outline of our ceremony wording that I really liked. Additional parts to the ceremony we are adding and a pretty clear idea of how I wanted it to flow. But her question caught me totally off guard. I mean, I know what my wedding will be like, I have pictures for inspiration saved to my computer, but I struggled for a few minutes to just describe our wedding. Later that night I read a lovely post by Midwest Miss Gets Hitched about wedding philosophies. I have just finished my masters degree in education and recall the important assignment of composing my own education philosophy. So without further ado, ahem, our wedding philosophy:

Our wedding is a reflection of our personalities: vintage, comfortable and bright details that embody our souls. Our wedding is a celebration of the coming together of two creative, quirky souls in a unique matter that reflects our life philosophy of recycling, re-using and creating what we cannot afford. At the end of the day, we hope you leave satisfied, both by the yummy food our families helped create and by the fun atmosphere created by those we love and hold most dear.

I see you wondering how this is going to translate into our actual wedding day. Here you go.

Here are some images that have inspired our wedding day and will keep both Jeff and I busy for the next five months!

Photo:Style Me Pretty

We will have long tables with no assigned seating. Growing my own flowers and hoarding vintage tablecloths to decorate the tables ourselves.

Photo:The Knotty Bride

The wedding party will be wearing grey and no full suits for the fellas. Keeping it casual and fun with bright colors as accessories.

Photo:Style Me Pretty

We're going to make all the signage and paper goods ourselves to keep down costs. It's a good thing we're creative!

Photo:The Bridal Guide

This is something I was in love with, but thought we could live without it. Jeff disagrees, so we're hoarding paper lanterns too to hang from our reception space ceiling!

Photo:Suger Plum Invitations

Since we are diy-ing our wedding, we decided to keep it earthy and natural. One of Jeff's jobs is to cut 100 rounds of wood to use for our tables. Glass jars are coming from my FMIL and flowers are coming from my garden.

Can you see what we're going for here? I know there's a lot of inspiration like this online right now, but I still have not been to a wedding that actually does any of these things. Our wedding will reflect who we are as a couple and as I look around our home, I see that our home already does that too.

Wedding Dress Dilemmas

In keeping with our theme of not spending huge amounts of money, I had decided to make my own wedding dress. Don't get me wrong, I love looking at wedding dresses, but have never come across one that seemed like what I was wanting. Not exactly in any case. Our wedding is more of a rustic-casual feel. The guys will not be wearing complete suits- just a nice shirt, trousers and a vest (trousers and vest in a light grey). My ring bearer is wearing whatever he wants with a red bow-tie I'm going to make him. My flower girl, again, can wear anything in any color. I envision something classy without being stuffy. My MOH is wearing an awesome vintage-inspired wiggle skirt dress with little cap sleeves (it's so amazing that it makes me want to puke a little bit). Bright colors will pop out against the light grey in the flowers, shoes and other accessories we end up having. I have never thought that I would want a long wedding dress...long dresses tend to make me look shorter than I am. I also usually feel like an elephant in a tent when I wear a long dress. So I've been envisioning a short wedding dress with a sweetheart neckline and a fun, bright crinoline underneath. Then I went to the only wedding dress shop in Nelson and tried on dresses for an afternoon with my MOH who was in town. About 15 dresses later, we narrowed it down to three that I was happy with. Then we left and ex-nayed all of them because I simply cannot afford to buy a wedding dress here. Absolutely not. And with only 5 months until the big day, I can't get it made somewhere else or ordered online (finances are a big factor here). So here are the ones I liked that I am taking inspiration from to create my own unique wedding dress. I seriously haven't come across anything that has all the elements of my own dress.

The collage with purple is the dress I've fallen pretty hard for. It made my figure look amazing (who knew I had a waist?) and was a stunning color and feel.

I did notice that when I sat down in it I had perfect posture (thank you boning) but I also had va-va-voom boobs. Seriously ridiculous and needing a little more control. Unfortunately it was also nearly $2k and we're hoping to keep our entire wedding under that. While that dress was phenomenal, it was also way too fancy for the wedding I have planned. The deep v-neck of the dress above made my chest appear smaller and more controlled (important for a large-chested woman such as myself). So what's a girl to do?

Design her own dress of course! So I'm using a pattern I bought at a vintage shop to start the dress, but then I'm altering it all to suit the parts I liked about the wedding dresses I tried on.

Below is my favorite part of the dress I'm going to make- a rainbow-esque crinoline!

The fabric I got on sale a few months ago. It's a creamy white and the lace is my mom's veil from her wedding. It's the only thing she has left from her wedding as she lost her own handmade dress in a trans-Atlantic move when I was younger.

I'm excited and nervous about making my own wedding dress, but I know I have the skills to do it. I just finished making the body double so I can do the draping of my dress without having to constantly be trying it on. I'll post pictures and the how-to we used in making my dress form.

Jeff is excited about my wedding dress. So even though he knows what it looks like, I already told him he doesn't get to see me actually in it until the day of. Fair is fair, I think.

Next up is the corselet for under my dress. It's gonna have a lot of boning in it and be laced-up to get my hourglass figure to show up. I better get to work!

All photos are personal.

Which dress do you think looked great on me? What are your thoughts on the dress design I drew up? Am I crazy for attempting to sew my own wedding dress without a clear pattern? :)

Setting the Date and Finding our Church

So not even 30 minutes after Jeff proposed, I was getting the question already. My mom was the first to ask, "So when is the wedding?"

Okay, Mom...yeah, like we have a date in mind already...

I love my mom and I'm so glad she was excited for our engagement. (She screamed when I told her over the phone...I think she's going to be a screamer at any and all big news I'll ever have to tell her). But it's been 30 minutes since we got engaged, not time to have a date in mind. It took a couple days for us to actually talk about what time of year we were looking at for our wedding. I've always dreamed of a outdoorsy, autumnal wedding. Like this one:

Image courtesy: Wedshare.com

Jeff had a summer wedding more in mind. Since New Zealand summers are incredibly mild, I didn't really have a problem with that idea. We started looking at calendars, considered overseas travelers, and finances before deciding to find a venue that could host a Tuesday wedding at the end of February or early March. Now to find a reasonably priced venue... We planned on a Saturday to go around and look at places I had found online. I called a friend and had her tag along to discuss possibilities. There are literally hundreds of places to get married around Nelson. So many churches, vineyards, resorts, etc. I had decided I wanted to get married in an old church and finances dictated that vineyards were out. So here are some places we looked at...

I have loved this church since the first time I saw it...Jeff has some ancestors buried here and it's out in the country. Very peaceful and gorgeous. No place for a reception there though...so we'd have to find a second location, which means more money.

I still can see myself getting married here.

We weren't able to go inside this church, but again, it's just beautiful and out in the country. It's a Catholic Church, so we wouldn't be able to use it anyway.

This is a Lutheran church in Upper Moutere. Beautiful building, but I found it weird with the two aisles...

All of these were possibilities, but didn't quite fit the bill. The first one was really expensive to rent for a wedding. And all three would require a separate reception location. And then we decided to visit the last place on my list. Founder's Park is a local heritage park in Nelson that is open to the public year-round. I had heard people had gotten married here before, but I was hesitant about it myself. It was in town, it's busy there in the summer, I still wanted to get married in a church, but at the prices they were quoting online for using the facilities, I couldn't pass it up. I hadn't been in the church they have onsite before, so I was going into this blind.

Wow, I had found it. We had a winner. The church was old like I wanted but not claustrophobic like other old churches I have been in.

No weird aisles to deal with, organs that cannot be moved (seriously, one church had a huge organ that wasn't allowed to be moved). And it's an intimate space for the small wedding we were wanting.

And just down the "road" is the reception room that we're going to use. It's a small hall seating 80, has a full kitchen for our bbq buffet, and a great wrap-around porch for enjoying the Nelson summer evening.

I was in love with it and had to check the dates for availability. Our first date was available! Yay! Jeff was happy, too. We would be able to have our wedding and reception in the same place, no worries about transportation, and our deposit has been put down. $285 dollars for the chapel and hall for the rehearsal on Monday and all day Tuesday for set-up and the wedding. You can't do much better for that price. Next up is my inspiration for the wedding and deciding what feel we are going for in our DIY wedding...

What do you think? Did you struggle to find a location that met all your criteria for a perfect wedding?

All images, unless noted, are personal pictures.

29 and Engaged

So I can't believe that it actually happened. Here I am, planning my wedding to my best friend. It's surreal. I can't believe that a little over two months ago I got the best birthday present ever and got to start a journey that will go on until I die. Spending the rest of my life with Jeff is more than I could have hoped for. He's understanding, loving, attentive, pushes me when I need it and is extremely supportive. I'm pretty lucky I think. :)

Now just a little reminder of what happened on my birthday July 11th... He's a really quiet man and I knew I would have to tell him that I would want to be engaged. I even found a ring I liked and emailed him the info on it. Then we went on with life. Planning things, financially struggling as I am still trying to settle into life here with immigration and an overseas qualification in teaching, etc. I figured he'd get around to it eventually, but wasn't really expecting it on my birthday. I came home from work yesterday and he was already home, grumpy about his job and various other things. Great, I thought, just what I need on my birthday, a grumpy boyfriend. He remained grumpy as we got ready to go out for dinner with our friends and was really quiet all night. He's really quiet anyway, so I wasn't bothered by it. We came home and as we got in the house, he stopped me and told me that he loved me as he pulled out a box and dropped to a knee. In our traditional fashion, he didn't actually ask me those four words (the same thing happened when we started dating and when I moved in-- didn't ask, but just came to that understanding) but I was still shocked and did manage to say yes as I slipped on the ring I had picked out months ago and hadn't seen in person until right then.

So now you have it, I'm 29, engaged to a wonderful country man, and have a head full of ideas for a wedding which I have decided to blog about on here so you can see it all as it unfolds. There are so many big decisions to make and so much inspiration floating around in my head, I wanted to have an outlet for it and a way to share the things I learn along the way (and the disasters that happen).

Us about two hours before Jeff proposed. I clearly had no idea.

My beautiful engagement ring. It may not be much, but it is the one I wanted from the man I love.

kitchen dreams

There are a lot of things I would like to have in my kitchen. Some are realistic, like this:

and this:

While others are a far off dream not likely to come into existence unless I get filthy rich, like this:

or this:

Let me explain though, I'm becoming quite proud of my kitchen at home. Jeff has done a lot to improve the space and build me things I need for it. He's an angel to me. The top picture here was the pot and pan rack he recently built for me. Last night? He finished fixing and priming a vintage flour mill I got at the recycle center ages ago so I can paint something pretty on it and then use it in baking. There is a plan in place to build me a hutch for the kitchen someday so the counter space can be better utilized here, but no set starting date on that. The back porch needs to be finished first since NZ decided to let winter arrive a month earlier. I think though, I want to try my own hand at building something soon, with Jeff's help. Maybe this:

A kitchen island. That would be really good to have in our house since we don't eat at the table most nights anyway. An island would give me the prep space I need and we could use the stools Jeff's dad gave us. It couldn't be as big as I want it, but we could make it work. That's something to consider as I go plant onions today and freeze my beezer off. It's cold. All in all, I'm happy here. I love our little house and the work we're doing on it. Jeff is always willing to build me something and even though I fall asleep between 930 and 10 every night (waking up at 6am is killing me) and never get as much done as I would like, I'm still content and hoping I can stay here forever. Well, maybe not in this house, but here with Jeff for sure. PS- I'm sending in my visa application on Monday, May 7th...so all fingers crossed and prayers greatly appreciated as I begin waiting to see if I get a 12 month work visa or not.