Category Archives: our wedding

I love adding beautiful details for that finished look. Here are some of the DIY’s we pulled off for our wedding.

The Ring Pillow was a simple project my oldest sister did for me. We discussed what I wanted and sourced out the fabric and trim. It was a simple yet BEAUTIFUL ring pillow. I used iron transfer paper to print my design. Transfered it to a white fabric, then my sister sowed all the sides and added the fringe. (while I was busy with either the topiaries or my shoes ;P) The fringe was very glamorous (it looked way better in real life than it does on photos), in between the fringe there are beautiful hanging crystals. It was so lovely.

(BTW at the moment of the ring exchange during the ceremony, my fingers are so tiny and my husband’s much bigger than my ring fell right inside his ring. We didn’t even know this, but our Best Man almost had a heart attack right by the alter, he glanced and saw that one ring was MISSING. He flipped! (inside that is). He later told us that as he was untying the one ring and thinking of ‘what the HELL do I do?’, the rings came apart and he relaxed a bit. It was TENSE, he later admitted. ;P

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At our wedding, I especially paid attention to create that extra drama with my bridal accessories. I wanted a little extra sparkle in my veil and even on my shoes. Swarovski Crystals were my best friend. (it would have been diamonds if I could only afford them – in such high quantity;P).

Crystal Decorated Veil: I saw some beautiful veils with crystals on the edge for 3x the price of a plain one.. and while I was out shopping with my little sister – also my Maid of Honour – she insisted that she would love to add the beads to a simple veil. She did a great job – it was just that extra sparkle I really wanted. I just wished that I received it sooner than the EVENING of the day before the wedding. I panicked! (just a little) (love u sis)

Rhinestone Shoes: When I went shopping for shoes, every wedding shoe I picked up was in the hundreds of dollars. I thought this is CRAZY – ‘I can’t spend that much!’
Luckily, by total accident I found a simple white pair for….. do I dare say……$5. Seriously, they were on this insane sale price. I had to get them. Next day I brought them to Michael’s and chose my favourite rhinestone silver beads, positioned them to make sure they fit well and counted exactly how many I’d need. I am pretty certain the beads cost me more than the shoes come to think of it ;P  With a little glue gun (it worked great because the shoes were fabric and the beads had holes on the back – for the glue to grab onto). Ta Da. I had people guess that they were $300 shoes!!! Checkmark!

Now just wait until you see the Wedding Dress – serious customizations on that project!

Now that I’m revealing our wedding details, tell me about your wedding. Did you make things yourself as well? I would love to hear about your day…. so please share.

The colour tones of our wedding were: pink & fuchsia (yes there is a difference ;P) with silver and crystal accents. I wanted a very exciting and fun colour story for a spring wedding. I am not a PINK girl at all, but somehow I love the beauty of pink in flowers, feminine dresses and just the pure prettiness of the excitement that PINK creates. Guess what? There were butterflies thrown in there as well ;D

For the decor, I had some challenges with the almost 20 foot ceilings and huge windows that are probably 8 feet high…. sounds fabulous, right? But what to do with all that height when you want to create an intimate setting….??? I knew that I needed to create some height with whatever I was going to make. So the topiaries came into mind – they were PERFECT for adding a romantic touch and height to the room. I also liked that they had a thin stem and didn’t cover the faces of the people seated on the opposite side of the table. I hate centrepieces that get in a way of good conversation ;P

The topiary’s looked great. To make them, you need:

• medium sized ceramic flower pot
• dogwood branches (bought mine at Ikea)
• flower foam ball, 4/5″ d.
• rectangular flower foam for the pot
• moss
• river stones to weight down the pot
• artificial flowers, about 20 for 1 topiary
• crystal decorative garland
• 1-2 silver butterflies
• silver sparkles
• spray adhesive
• wire, hot glue gun, scissors

Directions: figure out the height and cut the dogwood to size, secure a few branches with wire. lay the rectangular flower foam in the pot (trim in needed – you may even cut in half to make 2), in the spaces around, squeeze in as many river stones as possible. (play around until it’s a a good weight and it’s not tipping). For the ball, hot glue the flower heads all around. wire in the moss in between the flowers. Spray with adhesive and dust some sparkles to tips of flowers. Let dry. Assemble. Add moss to the top of the pot.  Position the crystal garland around and wire in place. Wire in the butterflies for a finishing accent.

I made 15 of these topiaries. Some of them went home as gifts, some I still have. They are beautiful to create for any occasion – give it a try ;D

Our venue was the exciting Assembly Hall in Toronto. Exciting, because it marries the true essence of what we were after. Old world with an addition of modern architecture. Exposed raw brick with traditional tall windows juxtaposed with a full glass and steel addition in the front. We loved this building from the moment we laid our eyes on it.

To dress the tall windows, I created Blooming Branches that added drama and beauty to the room. It was a similar process as with the topiaries, but I added the curly willow to the pot and secured pink roses to the branches with wire.

More tomorrow ;)

Now that I’m revealing our wedding details, tell me about your wedding. Did you make things yourself as well? I would love to hear about your day…. so please share.

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary is approaching this Friday, June 25. I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already…. Time sure does fly and we’ve been through so much together as husband and wife, but even before that being together for 13 years, and  living together the last 10. Almost half of my life I’ve spent with one man. One man that I love, support, care for… He’s been my partner in life, business and now parenting – and stood the test of our vow – “in sickness and in health” – when I dealt with my illness at it’s worst.

little treasures to remember the day by… amongst flower petals from my bouquet…

Now that I recall our Wedding Day, I certainly treasure each moment and still consider that day one of the BEST in my life.  I loved the planning process so much, all decisions were so beautiful and happy right in front of me. I wanted to control contribute as much as I could creatively. I wanted to make a lot of things myself, from the design process to the production process. I wanted things to look and be presented a certain way and I was eager to get my craft box out with my IDEA BOOK next to me, and create the most MEMORABLE and UNIQUE wedding for us and our guest to happily remember….

my idea book was essentially a scrapbook filled with all my inspirations and contacts….

I kept flipping through every wedding magazine I came across. Looking for inspiration, trends and ideas of how to incorporate my dream wedding into a ‘not-looking-like-on-a-budget’ beautiful Wedding Day. I took a plain handmade paper album and dressed up the cover with a pink paper flower and some Swarovski Crystals. I added tabs along the way and just glued, stapled or clipped in all my ideas. Me and my idea book were INSEPARABLE ;D

handmade invitations with ribbon and swarovski crystals

The theme of the wedding came to us that it should be a mix of OLD & NEW. But not in a traditional sense… We have an appreciation for old architecture, old songs, even old cars but we’re such MODERN people that we knew we had to MIX it up a bit to get OUR STYLE really across. Inspired by Etta James’ “AT LAST”, I knew this would have to be our song… my fiancee at the time was happy to keep me happy so… there we were… At Last!
Our song really set the theme for our invitations, the venue and our limo… all the details I will still feature throughout the week.

To make the invitations, I first went out to search for the envelopes I liked. I found some great ones with a satin, silvery finish in a square shape. Then I played around with some designs for the cards. I chose a photo from our favourite vacation spot and I wanted to layer it all together in an elegant and classic design. I chose a textured off white paper for the card’s base, cut out a photo opening in the centre. The photo along with the information were printed on parchment paper for that elegant soft look. A white sheer ribbon decorated the front and a Swarovski Crystal was glued to the knot on the ribbon for a finishing touch. I also made the RSVP cards printed on the off white paper, glued to the matching card stock I picked up with the envelopes, and another Swarovski Crystal adorned the little card. Making the first 5 was fun, but making about 50 proved I could stay focused and dedicated till the end, I will also be forever grateful to my sister/maid of honour for giving me a helping hand in all this craziness… I wouldn’t have changed a thing.
This week I will feature all the creative details from our wedding, like my customized wedding dress, ring pillow and decorations… see you tomorrow.

Now that I’ve revealed some of our wedding details, tell me about your wedding. Did you make things yourself as well? I would love to hear about your day…. so please share.