Rinda + James’ backyard wedding, photographed by Jill Thomas Photography (love all the dress colors!)
Seersucker fabric and letterpressed invites designed by Ice Cream Social, via Oh So Beautiful Paper
Jim and Myrna’s adorable rustic handmade wedding via Verhext
happy weekend!
We’re so excited about this little announcement! You all remember Kelly. You know, KELLY… of this adorable wedding, this DIY tutorial, and the cute blog, yes, please? Kay, well. She just launched a new business, Succulent Love Designs. And yep, you (So. Cal people) can now hire her to make her beautiful arrangements for your wedding, event, or just your house.
Succulent Love Designs. Go visit.
Jillian came up with this super cute table number idea after dinner at a restaurant that had something similar on their tables. Such an excellent way to make cute, but inexpensive (and recycled!) numbers for your tables. Plus they glow and we all know that you positively cannot have too much candle light on a dinner table.
Here’s what you need to get started. The tin cans (obviously). We suggest stopping by a local restaurant and asking if they have any empty tin cans they could part with. Just tell them you want them for your garden or something… no need to go into the whole story, you know? The nice thing about commercial cans is that they’re way bigger than regular soup cans from the store.
Then you’ll need:
drill (with an appropriately sized bit)
gold spray paint
tape
candles
a ruler
letter size colored paper
spray mount
exacto knife
cutting mat
and your number stencils, which you can download here.
Step 1: Tape off the inside of your cans so no spray paint gets inside. Spray the outside of each can with the gold spray paint (or any color you like). Be sure you don’t hold the spray can nozzle too close to the tin can, which can make for drippy, runny lines down your pretty table numbers and no one wants that.
You may need to do two or three coats depending on how opaque you want to the color to be.
Step 2: Once your cans are dry, wrap your printed number stencil around each tin can.
Step 3: Drill. Yay! Start by drilling the outline of the number first (following the stencil line), and then work your way in. It certainly doesn’t have to be perfect, but the more holes you can drill, the more light your can will give off.
Step 4: Slide your colored paper into the can on the opposite side as the number. Mark the paper with the appropriate height and width (you don’t want it to cover your numbers. Next trim the paper to the correct size using your cutting mat and exacto.
Step 5: Spray mount the trimmed paper to the inside of your can (opposite the number). And you’re done! We used red paper but you can of course use whatever color you like. If you’re using a color you’re not sure about, consider doing a test can first and lighting it that night to make sure you like the look before you finish the rest of your numbers.
Voila! Pretty, recycled table numbers.
Download the number stencil template here.
Remember that out-of-control cute wedding in Palm Springs that was all over the blogs a few weeks ago? Kelly + Chris? Surely you saw it and saved every single image to your wedding research folder like we did. (It really was that good, Kelly!)
Well, crafty bride Kelly started her own sweet blog and she posted a tutorial to her adorable succulent favors and centerpieces. We took those images and we’re shamelessly reposting them here, because we’re positive that you’re all going to love them.
So cute, right? You can see the full tutorial/succulent making party (including beer, nice!) on Kelly’s blog:
(Top photo by Erin Hearts Court)
A few weeks ago Kristina met up with our friend Danielle of Brown Paper Design at the Silverlake Farmer’s Market for a super cute (and earth-loving) project. Danielle’s idea was to take her love of local living and eating and apply it to her business as a (very talented) floral designer. Danielle’s friend Tara owns Silverlake Farms, an organic farm that grows and sells flowers right in the same zipcode. We love the idea that your wedding flowers could come straight from a grower in your neighborhood, especially when you integrate pretty pieces of seasonal produce for bits of color and texture. No one says that your “flowers” have to be 100% petals and stems, right?
One of the great things about shopping for your decor at a market (or hiring a florist who’s willing to do the same) is that you’re guaranteed fresh, inspired design as opposed to something expected like vases full of pink roses. We like roses, but it can be hard to justify their long trip from the green houses of Equador when there are so many other options… say, spring onions, pea tendrils, chinese broccoli, baby beets, and mini eggplant?
Purples and greens were dominating the market palette on Saturday, so Danielle went with it and supplemented her market finds with a few bunches of daffodils from Trader Joes. (Side note, Traders is an excellent place to find inexpensive seasonal flowers).
We’re so into using little, colorful veggies to brighten up your table in a sustainable, inexpensive way. Plus your guests can always fill up their handbags with fresh produce at the end of the night. Which thinking about it, could be a nice way to integrate favors into your decor.
And you can of course extend the organic vegetable theme into your bouquets and bouts. Remember seeing that cute lapel piece Prince Charles wore in honor of St. David’s day? (we couldn’t find the link anywhere, but some of you must have seen it) We love the idea of using a mini veggie as a farm fresh boutonniere.
And the same spring onions make beautiful feathery additions to a bouquet, as do sweet curly pea tendrils. Really you can use anything piled on a market table that adds insteresting texture and color. So many options at the market.
In parting, Danielle has these words of wisdom to share:
“I love to use Tara’s flowers as they are hand grown, hand picked, pesticide free and filled with love.
For this particular look, we combined Tara’s flowers, other local growers as well as a few daffodils from Trader Joe’s.
If you want to go the local route, don’t expect small growers to be able to give you 200 stems of the same flower, or be able to guarantee a flower choice at all. I suggest asking for a prominent color and choosing a palate. You will have much better results with your farmer and you’ll be guaranteed fresh blooms. Most likely it will be several shades and varieties of many flowers, which makes the look really natural. Do a little research and see what crops you can get in your area during each season. The farmer will appreciate your interest and it will be much easier job to visualize your end result. But keep in mind that because of changing weather patterns, you might be wanting pink ranunculus and instead end up with pink snapdragons (this happened to us last week).”
Thanks so much Danielle! You can see lots of her beautiful work on brownpaperdesign.com.
