wedding this and that

Why, hello!  It's been a few days of intense grading around these parts, but I thought I'd squeeze in one more post about wedding goodness before moving on to all of the wonderful fall things that are beginning to fill my days.  

Last week I shared a bit about our wedding (our wedding day) and a few of the things that I created myself (my wedding dress, wedding flowers) in order to save money and truly make it my own.  Today, I'd thought I'd share a few more of those things, in hopes that you'd be inspired to take a simpler approach to event planning and celebrations.  

In our world of Pinterest and DIY craziness, it's easy to get swept away in the excitement and creativity of it all.  However, a lot of the DIY ideas out there aren't really all that cost effective!  My goal, when planning our wedding, was to be able to make things myself for much less than I would have been able to buy them.  I love making and creating things, but if the final product is not cheaper and/or better quality than the store-bought version, I don't usually think it's worth it.  

Today I thought I'd highlight a few of the things that I really enjoyed making and ended up being super happy with the finished products, both in cost and quality.  

The decorations were by far my favorite.  While I don't have pictures of everything, I was beyond satisfied with what I created for our reception and ceremony.  My inspiration for these started with a few pieces of fabric that I found in our wedding colors and accents.  These accent fabrics were then used for our "bride" and "groom" signs for the head table, for decorative shoe clips for my ladies, as a hair clip for my 'lil lady, and as the background for some of our beer-bottle and glass bead magnets that we gave as favors.  Being the coordinated person that I am, I thoroughly enjoyed incorporating these fabrics into as many things as possible.  

One of my favorite decoration pieces were the tissue paper flowers that I made with some of my girlfriends.  We spent one lovely summer afternoon at my house making these wonderful flowers for just a few dollars and they added so much to the beauty of our day!  They were made from the tissue paper of old unwanted sewing patterns that I got at a textile sale for $0.10 a piece.  I purchased 30 patterns (for a whopping total of $3.00) and I think we only used about 10 of them!  We secured the flowers with floral wire that I got at a craft store for a few dollars and put them into vases that were made from bottles that I saved from my kitchen recyclables and wrapped in twine.  I absolutely loved the way they turned out!  And this project was SOOOOO affordable! 

The table runners were made from burlap coffee bags that we got for free from a local coffee roaster and they were covered with a layer of sheer fabric that matched the sheer overlay on my wedding dress.  Once again, I adored the coordination and the prices! 

For our ceremony, my dad built us a gorgeous arbor, which now stands at the entrance of our garden, and we filled the area around it with hanging baskets and potted plants from my dad's and grandma's houses.  Since the ceremony was right next to the reception tent, the plants added color and life to our reception as well.

A friend of ours (pictured below) graciously lent us the beautiful birdcage that our 'lil lady carried down the isle.  I wanted something different for her and the bird theme was perfect.  A similar borrowed bird cage was also used as a "card basket" near the dessert table.  While I loved the color and fun that these pretty bird cages added, I also loved how I was able to borrow them and not spend a dime! 

We loved everything about our wedding, but one of the things that I loved the most was the fact that we were able to celebrate our love together and begin our lives together without any debt or wedding bills to pay after it was all said and done.  Part of this was due to the generosity of our family and loved ones, but it was also due to the fact that I got creative with the things that I could control.  It can be hard to save much money when it comes to venues and food, but you can most definitely save money by finding creative ways to decorate.  Making all of these things I did also provided so many opportunities to spend time with those I love.  We crafted together and enjoyed each other's company.  It made our wedding much more of a communal affair.  In my opinion, being surrounded by community is one of the best ways to start a marriage.

wedding flowers

When it comes to saving money for a wedding, making your own flowers is a quick and relatively easy way to do so!  If you're going for a more natural bouquet look, it's pretty easy to not only assemble bouquets and vases yourself, but boutonnières and corsages as well!  After helping to make most of the flowers for three of my cousins' weddings, I knew that flowers were definitely something that I wanted to do myself.  

I chose flowers for the wedding based on what I knew I could easily access in Minnesota in September.  I fell in love with maroon and yellow celosia and decided to try growing it at my dad's, my grandma's, and my apartment.  While we didn't end up with quite as much celosia as I'd hoped for, we still had enough for it to play a big role in our arrangements.  

To add to the arrangements, I purchased a few bunches of things from Market Flowers in Minneapolis.  They specialize in selling bulk flowers at prices that are close to wholesale.  I really wanted Billy Balls in my arrangements, and was beyond thrilled when I found out that they stocked them there.  

The last bit of filler flowers and greenery came from all around my dad's property.  We used hosta leaves in the boutonnières, wild plume grasses in bouquets, and anything else that caught our fancy as we walked around the yard with a pair of scissors.  The day before the wedding, my ladies of honor, aunts, grandma, and stepmom all offered their creativity as we made all of the floral arrangements for the following day.  After making flowers for several weddings, I've found that the time spent with the ladies that day is so valuable and it's so much fun to be able to really enjoy the flowers.  For some many weddings, there are gorgeous flowers that you hardly get to even smell!  Making the arrangements yourself gives you the opportunity to really enjoy them, and enjoy each other.  I loved that. 

I was beyond thrilled with the way the flowers turned out!  The colors were perfect, the shapes of the bouquets were just whimsical enough to make me smile, and the Billy Balls were so adorable!  In the end, I think I spent about $200 or less on all of the flowers.  I was pretty pleased with that price tag, and so happy with the finished product.  

If you feel unsure of your flower arrangement abilities, take a class, watch some YouTube videos, or just start experimenting!  It's really a rather simple and fun way to save money and your skills will certainly be called upon for years and years to come.  

my wedding dress

I've dreamed about my wedding since the day I first understood what the word wedding meant.  Every sleepover I had in elementary school and junior high was filled with giggles and innocent dreams about that day and all that it would hold.  The dress, of course, was one of the most important thoughts.  Would it be long and flowing?  Would the veil cover my face?  Would the dress sparkle in the candlelight??  I was a dreamer and for as long as I can remember, these thoughts have filled my mind.  

Once the reality of wedding bells grew closer, though, I began to realize that the dreams in my head of that perfect dress were going to be hard to satisfy.  You see, I'm rather picky when it comes to clothes.  This is mostly due to my love for vintage clothing, especially dresses from the 1950's.  When I picture the perfect dress in my mind, I see a full skirt with a fluffy petticoat peaking out from below the hem.  As I began to think through what type and style of wedding dress I really wanted to have, I began to realize that it was going to be very hard to come by, especially with my rather limited budget.  

So, I came to the only decision that made sense:  I decided to make my own dress. 

Now, at the time I was a novice seamstress, at best.  I had made a few aprons with full bodices, a couple simple dresses, a skirt, and a few random other things.  But, you see, I have this philosophy on life that if it's possible to make it myself, then, by golly, I'll make it myself!!  Because, you see, up until the last sixty years or so, women often made their own wedding dresses (or their mothers/grandmothers made them) and I do so despise the fact that we are losing the art of sewing in our society.  So, with all that in mind, I figured, it couldn't be that hard---I could, and would, figure it out.  And, so, I did! 

I found a picture of a vintage dress pattern, that I absolutely adored and a few pictures of wedding dresses that had a similar feel and I used them all as inspiration for my design.  (The sources for these images are long forgotten.  My apologies!)  I was able to use the picture of the back of the vintage dress pattern to give me an idea for the amount of fabric I would eventually need.  

I then ordered my fabric online, which took a lot of searching to find just what I was looking for! The sheer overlay ended up coming from an Etsy store based out of China and the main fabric of the dress I found at Joann.  

Then came the most challenging part--designing the pattern.  As I sat in my chilly apartment that winter and stared at my sketches before me, I regretted all of the times that I had thought that fractions were a waste of time...I decided through this designing endeavor that my future children will learn the practicality of fractions.  They are rather necessary in so many of the projects I find myself doing! 

After the initial pattern was designed and cut out of tracing paper, I got to working making my first sample dress out of an old white sheet.  

Although I thoroughly documented this entire process, I unfortunately lost the majority of the pictures in an unexpected phone crash right before the wedding.  Out of all of the pictures I lost, the ones of my dress were the most disappointing.  

After the white sheet dress was finished, I made a few adjustments and then started on the second sample, this one was made out of an adorable vintage sheet set with bright yellow flowers that I had slept on for years at our beloved cabin.  I ended up wearing that dress for my family bridal shower, which was perfectly delightful!  Those photos were also lost. Boo. 

Then, about a month before the wedding (Hah!!! Yikes, is right!!), I started on my actual wedding dress.  It came together rather quickly and I was so happy with the pattern tweaks that I had made along the way.  The final product was exactly what I wanted.  It fell to the perfect spot on my legs, it twirled just right, and I felt my absolute best in it.  

I also made my hair piece and veil, which were by far the easiest parts of the project, but they added just the right amount of vintage flair and feathered spunk to my full ensemble (especially when paired with my mustard pumps)!  Oh, I did so love how everything turned out!!

Now, I as I said earlier this week, I wanted to write about our wedding as a way to inspire.  I realize that the majority of the brides out there are not going to make their own dresses, and that's honestly not why I'm writing about this.  I am sharing it with you, though, to help you think outside of the box.  My dress, shoes, and accessories ended up costing me less than $200.  I made everything except my jewelry (a pearl necklace and earrings, which my mom had bought me for my 18th birthday) and my shoes, which I found online after months of searching.  The point is, when you stop to think about it, there are lots of ways to get creative with weddings and any event, for that matter.  Why spend so much money for something that so many people end up sealing away in a box and sliding under their bed?!  

For me, I couldn't do it.  So, I figured out an alternative.  And as for storing that lovely dress of mine?  It hangs in the closet of our spare bedroom so that each year, when our anniversary comes 'round, I can pull it out, put it on, and let my husband twirl me around our living room with our wedding songs filling the air with their sweet, sweet melodies.  

soup...for later

Hello, friends!  It's been so long since I've posted and I've been missing this space--and missing the regular creating that normally happens in my house.  My kitchen and house are slowly returning back to their normal messiness (rather than utter disaster) and the creative juices have begun to flow again.  Hooray!  

This past week, while this was happening to Dan Rodriguez, I found my way to the farmers' market and back to my kitchen where some soup making soon commenced.  Throughout last winter's long, long winter, I decided that pulling homemade canned soup from the basement on a lazy Sunday night was probably one of my favorite things (at least in the way of canned goods that come from the basement).  There's nothing quite so lovely as putting little to no effort into making dinner--especially when the finished product is entirely homemade, by you.  

Not that there was no effort put into the soup making, but just not at the time in which it was eaten.  And that, my friends, is why I love preserving my own food.  The end product is not only better for our bodies and better for our tastebuds, but it's also better for my sanity.  I love cooking, but hey, we all love (and need) those meals where we don't have to work, right?!  

So, this year I decided to make a bit more soup than I had last year and stash it in the basement again.  This year I made Carrot-Tomato Soup and Tomato Basil.  I kind of just made up my own tomato basil recipe and canned it like I would a tomato juice/sauce, in my pressure canner (a no-no in the official world of canning, but hey, I'm fine with that.)  Both soups are so delicious with a grilled cheese made with homemade sourdough bread and local cheese.  I've found that the carrot-tomato is also fabulous with buttery popcorn.  Yum!!

I ended up with 5 canned quarts, another almost full quart in the freezer, and a pint or so in the fridge.  While we could eat more than this, it's still a great amount for us for this winter.  I'm looking forward to that first lazy Sunday afternoon when we first decide to pop open a jar and cozy up on the couch with a steaming bowl of soup, a warm oozing sandwich and our favorite show. So lovely!  It will just be so lovely.  

making dirt

Composting!  I love it!  I first became actively interested in composting when I read Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson.  I was impressed and inspired by how her family is able to use composting as a way to reduce waste in her home.  Learning that I could reduce waste, while adding good nutrients to my garden soil, made me excited to get a pile of our own going.  

So, last fall, Dan built us a compost bin out of wooden pallets that we got from my uncle's manufacturing company.  It's a simple design, but it works great.  We then began adding leaves, yard waste, and kitchen scraps.  As we got it started late in the season, it didn't reach a healthy composting state before winter.  This meant that it froze solid pretty early on in the winter and once it finally thawed in May, it was a bit on the stinky side (because it was unbalanced and not really composting).  After a month of adding greens and browns (nitrogen and carbon), it heated up and began to really break things down quickly!  We now have quite a bit of finished compost that is ready to go into the garden this fall! 

After composting for a year now, there are a few things that I've learned.  

  1. I love it!  This is weird, I know, but the reason I love it is that I feel less wasteful when I find nasty celery in our fridge because I'm putting that nasty celery to use by turning it back into dirt.  I've also found that our trash can in our kitchen stays fresher longer, as we're not filling it with as many things that get stinky.  
  2. We waste less!  We're just not throwing as many things away, because we're compositing more.  I'm also more mindful of what food I toss, because I'm taking the time to decide between compost or trash with each and everything that I toss from the fridge.  I've found that I'm using more of what I buy and tossing less.  
  3. It's easy!  It's pretty easy to keep a compost pile in the kitchen and bring it outside every day or two, or three.  The hardest part with composting is fighting fruit flies in the house in the summer.  We've solved this buy keeping a bowl for compost scraps in the fridge and just emptying it more often than we need to in the winter.
  4. The soil is fantastic!  Because we didn't have any ready compost in May, I wasn't able to add any to our garden.  However, in July, I planted some lettuce and kale on our deck in boxes.  When I planted them, I added half dirt/half compost to the boxes and we were amazed by how quickly and how well those greens grew!  There was a definite difference between what I grew in the boxes and what I grew in my garden.  I'm excited to get the compost added to the garden for next year's plantings!  
  5. It's fun!  It's so fun to watch those corn husks slowly disappear and that dark, moist organic matter to appear!  Sometimes, when I walk by the chicken coop, I stop by the compost bin just to stir it for fun (weird, yes, but fun!!)

If you're interested in finding out more about composting, there are a few books that I've found to be helpful.  

Happy dirt making!!