The Wedding...

Look at that look on her face!!!LOL

Is she going to smash that cake

all over his face???

Nope she was really good!

But I would have bet you it was going all over him...

Instead that crazy husband of hers...

Smashed it in his own face.

They did have fun...

"THE CAKE"

The cake was my biggest fear...

She wanted me to make the cake.

It just had to be small she said...

Only her and him would be eating it...

Remember everyone else would be eating the Cupcakes!!!

Than she would take one section to freeze and save

for their first anniversary...

But I don't decorate cakes I told her!!!

So fondant was my choice of frosting!

But I hate fondant!

That was until I found PINTEREST!!!

There was a new recipe for Fondant

It was marshmallow fondant!

I had never heard of it but it was worth a try...

Only Mini Marshmallows,Powdered Sugar and Water...

How hard could it be?

Actually really easy!

I looked it up on You Tube.

I love You Tube you can learn how to do anything there.

I always say I am a visual learner and watching the tutorials makes

it much easier for me!!!

This was my first try at this and I would do this one again

in two months.

Yea I made two of them...lol

No icing decorations

Just Hydrangeas and Raffia with a few Lemon Leaves

Topped with a birds nest.

Can you believe she picked the Hydrangeas last September

We did nothing to them but hang them

and they kept this much color.

I was amazed...

Oh I almost forgot the most important part of this cake...

The Cake Plate!

Last October I had just gotten home from school

and I heard a chain saw...

It was next door.

I looked out just in time to see the big pine tree come down.

It wasn't just any pine tree...

It was Amanda's Great Grandparents

Christmas tree from the 50's

It was huge!

I ran next door and ask the guy cutting it down

If he could cut me a couple of slices for us to save...

I knew at that moment it would be going under that cake!!!

Yea I not only married the boy next door,

we ended up buying the house next to his parents

and next to that was the house his grandparents built years ago...

Not a great picture but they are lit so you can see them.

A little closer look on this one..

Of course they had burlap and roses...

In the picture with them at the top...

If you look in the background on both sides of them

are the big arrangements

that had big branches that lit up

really beautifully.

To Be Continued...

Lynn



The Wedding

As I stand on an almost 50 year old braided rug

made by:

 Toms Grandmother...

Surrounded by Burlap and Muslin

I have to take time to reflect on the notion..

That a lot of my crafting started with my Mother-in-Law

getting me started doing craft shows with her

in the early 70's

I always loved to paint and started taking painting classes at age 12.

Sewing came easy when I started taking sewing classes in high school.

My mom was always sewing and making me cloths I loved...

But watching Toms Grandmother and Mom braid rugs from the time I was a young child always fascinated me. I even watched them make this rug in the middle of

Tom's mom's living room floor...

Now it is in our Family Room...

Oh by the way I married the kid across the street...

Literally!!!

So crafting,sewing,and painting was something I have always loved...

"THE DREAM"

This next project started with a dream, yea I dreamed about this one...

We already had the glass globes that went into these baskets..

I wanted to Incorporated them somehow with the roses...

In my dream I wrapped the burlap around them

to look like roses and the next day I tried them...

and shall we say the rest is history!!!

Here you can really see the roses wrapped round them...

Than you just filled them with lamp oil

and they would have burned for 14 hours...

We did the same with some single rose baskets that went on the head tables...

Roses Roses and more Roses...

AND LOTS OF HOT GLUE BLISTERS...

How would we ever survive without hot glue??? LOL

The Baskets were heavy,silver and rusty. So very rustic...

Something Amanda found at a Yard Sale for $.50 each..

So we knew we had to use them...

My girlfriend Paulette gave me a big bag of the tan grassy looking stuff

we filled the baskets with... It worked perfect...

Here one sat on that beautiful wall...

They really looked nice that night all lit...

The lemon leaves were another thing we found in

Grandma Lil's craft supplies...

There was a huge bag of them and we sure used them a everywhere...

As the tables were starting to be decorated...

Here sits one of the small baskets...

Again I can't wait to see the photographers photos.

They will be much better than just the quick shots

we took as we worked...

To Be Continued...

Lynn

The Wedding...

"TWO FAMILIES ARE BECOMING ONE"

How could this couple look so cool

on an evening that was almost 100 degrees

with humidity like soup!!!

This was at the Luau or rehearsal dinner the night before wedding...

This was probable my favorite project!

One she picked early on and I couldn't wait to get started on...

It was the one we fought over the most...

I kept telling her it would look so good hanging on my wall

in our family room..

She said no it would look the best in her living room...

So while she was on her honeymoon we took it to their house

and it is now up in the living room.

I just enjoyed giving her a hard time over it.

Besides I would have had to change the letters to hang in my house!

(but wait til you see what I did get to keep in my family room!)

We needed to decide on size-

We were going to be outside and it needed to be bigger than life for

EVERYONE TO BE ABLE TO SEE..

I already had the frame and it was 4ft.X3ft.

That part was easy.

On one of the trips to Grandma Lil's Garage...

Amanda found this really big 3ft Grapevine Wreath.

It was perfect..

Tom cut a board out to fit inside the frame

Out came the spray glue...

And the "Burlap" was added to it.

Now to decide on the Lettering.

I knew I was going to have to paint the letters on...

I just needed to decide the size and font style

This was my first choice I taped it on to see how it was going to look...

Fine I thought!

I painted it and Hated it...

So It got ripped off and I started over...

Here we go a softer look done with oil paint this time..

I LOVE THIS SAYING...

It was perfect...

Now for the "Details"...

If you look real close you maybe can figure out what the roses are made out of...

Especially if you have ever done any reupholstering
The roses were made out of a really stiff jute strapping.
But they made beautiful roses, than I softened the spray with the
Muslin Roses.
Lots of Dried Lemon Leaves
and pearls added to the centers of the roses.
Than on the right side Tom cut out the letters.
I tied a bow to hang them on
with another Muslin rose...

And the most important part...
The Easel!
My Brother-in-Law is a wonderful
woodworker.
Tom took him a picture of an inspiration easel we liked
and the size of this monster frame.
It had to be really big and really sturdy!
You can get an idea how big it is with this 1st grader
Our flower girl standing in front of it!
It worked really well...
And welcomed everyone to
just come in and sit down...
We are all one big family  now...

To Be Continued...
Lynn

The Wedding...

The details...

We knew with a burlap theme it was going to be hard so we decided..

IT WAS GOING TO BE ALL ABOUT THE DETAILS...

This very old suitcase was in someones basement, I think maybe Colleens.

We opened it up and inside it was lined with Contact Paper!

Olive Green and Antique Gold like from the 70's

LOL

I ripped it out really fast...

Lined the whole thing with "Burlap"

I never knew there were so many kinds of Burlap!

Than where the pocket on the lid was suppose to be

 I used a really open weave

Wide Burlap Ribbon and gathered it to look like the pocket

Now for the detail...

Muslin Roses...With Dried Lemon Leaves...

Muslin was Amanda's Grandmothers favorite fabric,

and she had lots of scraps in Tuff Boxes..

In fact she had lots of things we used for this wedding.

Grandma died about 2 years ago and every time we went to her garage to find something

We would say:

"She Just Keeps Giving and Giving"

as she always did.

She would have loved all the things we made and used of hers!!!

I learned how to make the flowers from many hours of watching You Tube Tutorials!

You can learn how to do anything from You Tube!

Than I ran a brown satin ribbon across the top from rose to rose

Made some letters out of card stock covered in fabric

for the words...

"Cards"

Added some antique linens and doily's

and a few more roses...

The ring bear pillow leaning in front, burlap of course with a birds nest on it!

Topped the table with one of Great Grandma's Quilts from the 40's

and that is where all the cards they received were placed.

I think it really did turn out pretty cute!

In Loving Memory...

I know somewhere there is a picture of this up on the mantel at the wedding.

I guess we will have to wait for the photographers pictures on this one...
I found one,but you have to look for it...
On the left where the antique lace tablecloth is hanging off shelf...

This picture gives you a good view of the fireplace area...
The tall racks held all the cupcake's, 190 of them...

Didn't need that fireplace with temps in the 90's

One more old suitcase

(Amanda works at Garfield's Restaurant and they are remodeling

So lots of the things that were up on the walls were up for grabs and she grabbed this one)

This one had tiny decorated bottles

with antique hankies tucked inside

"For Happy Tears"

It was so hot that weekend we

put sunscreen and bug spray

to keep everyone comfortable, being right by the river...

The basket on the right was full of Muslin Squares...

Everyone wrote with markers a nice note for the

Bride and Groom

These will be put together to make a quilt.

In the tall silver vase were sparklers for their send off...

This table also had one of Great Grandmas Quilts

along with a table runner made out of

Yea you guessed it!

Burlap

With their "W"

for

Walls...
I had good time painting all of those. The head table had the ones with the "W" for Walls
all the other tables were just trimmed in white.

On this bench another quilt with a basket of Beer Koozies as favors

and more of the Hydrangea Baskets ...

All of these tables lined the walkway as everyone came in.

It was nice seeing everyone writing notes and adding prints to the tree

and dropping off their cards and gifts...

and as you can see the sun was shinning on them this day!!!

It was beautiful!!!

To Be Continued...

Lynn

The Wedding...

Keeping with the rustic theme...

This is the cabinet that would house all the glasses for the wedding.

Glasses? Or should I say Mason Jars..

Yes Mason Jars each with a tag around the neck so you could

write you could write you name on it!

They were so cute.

I can, so I had quite a few already

But I hit a yard sale one day and got 7 dozen for $7.00

Boy was I happy.

Than a good friend let me borrow 84 of hers...

They got washed tagged and boxed away..

Another project done!

We started with an old cabinet I had,

Of course painting it than sanding it so it looked old!

The old door is another story in it's self.

I work at  wonderful garden center, I have been there for 4 years in the summers.

Last summer when I parked my car where I always park it, I looked in the field

and there it was the same door that had been laying there since before I started working there.

Why was it there??? Who knows but no one had ever moved it, not even to mow.

It just laid there...

So on that day I decided it was going in my car and home with me!

I ask my boss to give me a hand with something and I showed him to my car...

When I said please help me with this really heavy door and I wanted to take it home...

He just looked at me like he sometimes did

as if to say WHY???

What are you going to do with that??? LOL

It is going to be part of Amanda's Wedding!

Than he really laughed..

Yea Right he said...

All I did to that door was hose it off really good and that was it!

Still with the henges on it, we screwed it to the cabinet!

"Now for the "Details"

Grapevine & Hydrangeas

to start with...

The sign that read:

Your Glass for the Night

For what ever Tastes Right

Tag Your Cup!

Here is how it sat in my

Family Room/Storage Room

Here it is at the Wedding all Dolled Up!

Full of Mason Jar Glasses!

Under a Huge Tree adorn with lights

and lanterns with candles

At this time it also had

Amanda's

Wedding Gown Hanging in the Tree!

I can't wait to see the photographers pictures of this!!!

This was a special Glass..

It was for the Flower girl...

She was JR's niece Mary

As you can see some of the Mason Jars were special!

They had stems..

Commonly known here as

"Hillbilly Wine Glasses"

All the wedding party had one with their names on the tags

The Bride & Grooms even had a handle on the Mason Jar too!

They are really easy to make for yourself...

It is just a Glass Candle Stick

Glued with E6000 glue

right on the bottom of the mason jar.

But I liked Marys Best!

She was just the Perfect Flower girl!!

To Be Continued...

Lynn

The Wedding...

We'll start today with the invitation...

All of them were made with  paper bag brown card stock...

and the backing was of course Burlap...

Even the envelopes were paper bag brown.

We searched the Internet for just the right tree to print on the top

Because

of course she had something in mind she wanted it to match.

By the way I don't think I have mentioned yet the new word in her vocabulary...

"PINTEREST"

Yes Pintrest.com

No matter how much they say about pinterest just say NO and stay away from it..

OR YOU WILL BE ADDICTED!

 She typed in Burlap Wedding ideas

and guess what???

thousands of ideas popped up... yea THOUSANDS!

That's when I knew I was in big trouble...

We just kept pinning new ideas on our Wedding Board

Finally I had to say we can not make them all we need to start a folder

of only the ones we can not do without!!!

That seemed to work FOR A WHILE!!!lol

ANY WAY...

She stuck with the theme of Burlap-Jute

for the invitation...

This is what she wanted it to match and follow through with

This was her guest book...

Or Guest Tree!

On the sign at the top read:

Leave your "Print"

On their tree

And make sure

You sign

For everyone to see!

Here today

Memories were made

That will last forever

On the branches

Of this tree!

On the swing will be Amanda & JR's print

On the branches will be the green prints of all the guests

On the Roots will be the prints of all of their family members

It turned out beautiful...

Things like this I started painting really early and just packed away.

So that brings us back to this beautiful part of the ceremony!

It was called the

Tree Planting Ceremony

(click on link above to see wording for ceremony)

They had a small tree potted at the side by the doors

In this ceremony

he added dirt to the pot

and she added the water.

If you click on the link at the top above picture it gives you everything they said.

This tree will be planted at their home.

As with most weddings that morning was a little crazy..

When he started to move them toward the tree she turned and looked at me...

as if to say:

WHERE'S THE DIRT AND WATER?

That was one of the things on my to do list that morning

Bring Dirt and Water!

I just nodded as if to say it is there...

Thank God I remembered!!!LOL

 

I had never seen this done before and it was truly a unique part of the ceremony to remember...

 

Our photographer keeps sending us a few beautiful pictures as she finishes them. She has been doing such a wonderful job. It will be great to see them all.

This is what she did with the wedding bands and the invitation...

"AMAZING"



To be Continued...

Lynn

The Wedding

We found "THE" Dress very early in the fall last year and it was perfect...

Very simple and elegant...

Just what she didn't think she wanted...

until she tried it on...

Than it was all about the shoes...

I think what ever dress was going to match

these shoes that was going to be the dress she would wear...LOL

She loved them..

So now to find a veil?

We looked at all different ones..

She knew she didn't want a long veil or one over her face...

But where was that perfect one?

She just couldn't find it!

One evening after the first of the year we were working on decorations

and I had given this some thought a few days earlier

I decided I would give her something to think about...

I said do you remember my veil in my wedding pictures?

It was really long and just had lace around the edges...

What if we redid it for you to wear??

She just looked at me and cried, we did a lot of that...

So off to the closet we went.

It was old, 38 years old and had darkened with age,but after I washed it...

It looked just fine..

I remembered it being long but not that long...

I told her we could cut it to any length she wanted.

So out came the measuring tape and scissors...

We decided on the length and...

There it was just like that cut in half...

and we even have enough left in case Colleen wants to do the same with the other half some day!

Away I went to sewing it onto a beautiful comb for her hair...

But wait it still wasn't just right it needed something to up date the lace a little...

Beads and sequins were what it needed.

So for about 12 hours in the next few weeks I sat on the couch and watched TV while all the beads and sequins went on.

They really did shine in the sun that day...

To Be Continued...

Lynn

The Wedding!

The Wedding has come and it was beautiful. The Bride was exquisite...and the Groom ? Yea he was great too...

Here they are on June 30, 2012... as Mr. & Mrs. JR Walls

Here she in front of the beautiful Dried Hydrangea and Grapevine adorn Antique Doors

that were the backdrop for the ceremony.

This was her vision since last fall when she decided this wedding, that was going to take place outside at Heston Farm was to be very rustic..

The main theme would be "BURLAP"

 Yes Burlap...

What does a mother do with Burlap?

Well I soon found out! LOL

(Burlap Curtain on doors)

But let us begin with the doors...

One evening on her way to our house to work on wedding decorations I got a call..

She ask me to please bring the Blazer and meet her at some construction company...

When I ask why all she said was please come...

When I got there all I saw was her kicking the glass out of some old yucky,

really yucky doors.

When I ask her what she was doing she said I just found the doors I

want to use for the backdrop at the Ceremony!

Well I just about dropped!!!

But soon we had them painted and sanded again to look new but to look old at the same time!!!

As you can see it worked just as she had envisioned!

Than in the fall she began asking perfect strangers "Can I please pick your hydrangeas?"

She collected hundreds and had them hanging everywhere at all our houses.

I couldn't imagine why she needed so many...

But look what my wonderful next door neighbor and great friend, that can make the most amazing flower arrangements did with them! Jeanie is AMAZING!!!

First we started with grapevine up the sides and across the top..

She added dried Lambsear and Nigella in with the Hydrangeas to make it just perfect!

This has to be my favorite picture with all the Bridesmaid's & Flowergirl 

 hiding behind the doors peaking around at her...

Her sister Colleen is in the middle of the window on the right...

She really did know what she wanted, and the photographer used them really well!

Here is the entire wedding party...

Of course the girls all wore Brown and the guys Tan...

To match the BURLAP...

The girls all wore different colored shoes and we matched the flowers baskets to them..

She even wanted to make them...

Here's Amanda and her girlfriend Kayla after a day of pulling grapevine down out of trees...

and making them look like baskets.

After they finished them I lined them with dark green silk and added light green ribbon to all of them and than filled them with silk flowers to match all the girls shoes..

JR calls her "CRAZY GIRL"

I'm sure it is for a different reason then why I call this

DIY Girl...

"CRAZY GIRL"

I am going to try to keep this story going so you can see just what went into this beautiful wedding...

ALONG WITH SOME "BIG" TWISTS AND TURNS ALONG THE WAY!

I'll keep posting.

STAY TUNED!

Lynn

A little sneak peak teaser!!!

Just a few little teaser pictures on how the wedding plans are coming along. The burlap and jute theme is coming along quite well. I am really learning how to make roses out of just about anything! There are some great places to find just about anything you want. Inspiration and the best place to find it is at Pinterest.com

I typed in burlap wedding and WOW the things I found!!!

And just where do you find all this burlap, especially when you need yards and yards?

burlapfabric.com

This site has everything hundreds of yards of burlap for the table runners and more, go take a look!!!

Jute Webbing is what these beautiful roses were made out of. It was just stiff enough to make these big roses beautifully. Even he rosebuds turned out great with it!

 This saying is going to be painted on burlap,you will see later how all this ties in with the roses.

 Little touches of burlap ribbon behind the ribbon rose looks cute on this candle...

 And this jute raped handle and muslin cabbage rose is so cute...

You will see the rest of this picture later too, but it looks really nice lined with all the burlap! I am having so much fun trying new things with burlap and jute along with some other textures and things are really coming together I think. So keep watching for more updates and you'll get to see it all after the wedding in June!!!

Have a Good One!
Lynn