place cards and labels.

Having 12 children in the wedding, and 11 of them with assigned seating, I decided early on to make name tags for their chairs at the ceremony, so they know, and adults around them know, where they are to sit.

As added incentive, I stapled a dollar bill to each of the children's name tags. I talked about the dollars at the rehearsal dinner and got all the kids excited to have their dollars, IF they behave the next day. All the kids did amazing, also, our photographer knew about the dollars and reminded them when we were taking pictures.

(AnnaLisa showing off her dollar)

The adults also got name tags:I also needed to label the cupcake flavors and coffee/hot water/lemonade/fruit punch etc. I already had the stamps and the ink was left over from my napkin rolls.
I had originally bought a print-your-own invitation kit, but after Staples couldn't print on them, I didn't use them for the invitations.

The invitation cards were a good size for the place cards and other various labels.
The RSVP cards in the kit were perfect size for my cupcake flavors labels. (still looking for a better picture of the labels) They were supposed to be cut in half when used as RSVPs but i found folding them in half worked well for little tent-stands.

I also stamped the note for my signature frame, bathroom door signs, and goodie bags in the same way.

COST OF PROJECT:

• Invitation kit: Leftover, but was $3.97 on clearance at JoAnn's, envelopes were used for invitations and thank you notes.
• Stamps: already owned, but were like $5 on clearance at a local scrapbooking store
• Ink: Leftover from other project, but were $4/pad at JoAnn's and Michaels
• Dollars: $11 + $1 because my nephew Shua ripped his during the reception and I replaced it.

Flower girl baskets.

I always knew this would be an easy peasy craft project. and I knew I didn't want it to cost a lot of money.

First i thought i would just get some $1 baskets from thrift stores, i love thrift store shopping because it can be better for the environment, (i talked about that in this post) but i decided i wanted the baskets to all match, and having 4 flower girls, i thought it would be difficult to find 4 matching baskets, used. After Eater, I bought 4 plain blue baskets.

I had just enough orange ribbon to wrap around each one and twist around the handle. then after not having enough ribbon to make bows, and not really knowing how to make bows easily, I decided to take some silk flowers I had and hot glue them on. I glued the first one on, but it wasn't centered, so i added 2 more. The flowers all started the same size, to make 2 of them smaller, i pulled the little plastic thing off the back, removed 1 and 2 layers of petals and put the plastic thing back on. The smallest flower was attached carefully to the handle so that the handle would still pivot, making storage easier.

The baskets were filled with cut up silk flowers. I would have needed 2 $10 boxes of petals, but i did the math and i got more than enough flower petals with 4 bouquets of cheap silk roses in 2 colors. Plus, my sister, who is helpful but not super crafty, needed an easy job on craft night, so she sat and cut the petals off the roses.

COST OF PROJECT = $21.75 for 4 baskets and petals.

• Baskets 4 x $2 = $8
• Ribbon: 1 spool for $1
• Orange silk flowers: $0.75
• Petals: 4 bouquets x $3 each = $12

About the flower girl dresses, they were on Clearance for $9 each at Wal-Mart. Then I decided to make a collar for our dog, so I went back to buy another, and it was only $5,
Knowing her temperament, Annie was not part of the ceremony, I just made the collar for her for fun. All I did was cut the dress just above the ruffle, and folded a wide seam, hot glued the seam shut into a sleeve, (like for a curtain rod) and slid her regular collar inside the sleeve. We got the jewel beaded leash at a pet store for her.


I told the parents the flower girls can wear whatever shoes they had already or that they wanted to get them so they wouldn't have to spend much, although $9 is pretty cheap for the dresses.

Cupcake Tree ~ revisited

I am so happy with my decision to do cupcakes and to display them in tiers like a traditional cake.

read about cupcake stand ideas here

I took this, a naked Cupcake Tree:

and turned it into this:
read about the flavors here

what i did was take a few rolls of solid blue wrapping paper and wrapped all the peices, attatching with tape. Assembled all the peices. (super easy to assemble, btw) then we hot glued the orange ribbon around the edge of each tier. then, using double sided tape, my bridesmaid put paper doilies all over each level. The cupcakes were organized by flavor, and on the table under the stand, i put hand stamped signs for each flavor.

The top tier was a Big Top Cupcake. I have a lovely friend Tresha, who owns a cake decorating buisness, Pink Princess Cakes who came over with some other friends, and family members to help frost all the cupcakes. That day, I was going to bake the jumbo cupcake, but it didnt turn out (looked done, but was batter still on the inside, (thats what I get for not following directions) so, being as wonderful as she is, Tresha took the pan home with her and brought it back morning of the wedding. My only instruction was that i wanted it to look like a big cupcake, and my "bride and groom" topper idea was to make cupcakes look like a bride and groom.

This is what she brought, and WE LOVED IT:

it was super yummy too! since we cut into this cake for the cake cutting ceremony, we saved the groom and bride cupcakes for our 1 year anniversary.

ETA I have since used this cupcake tree 7 MORE TIMES! read about that here

Signature Mat, sharpies and mustard

never a fan of the traditional guest book, i knew i wanted to do something different. When i found 2 signature mats at Wal-Mart on clearance for $0.75 each, I decided that was what i was going to do.

First, i thought i would just do a little sign "please sign frame" note and put it on the table with the goodie bags. Then i was concerned with someone signing too close to the edge of the mat, that would be covered with a frame, so since we were doing well on budget (his parents offered to pay for the food sort of last minute), and since we will need to buy frames anyway, (we originally thought we would use wedding gift cards or gift cash for them, after), we decided, correction, I decided to buy some frames and put the mat in the frame for signing. The frames we bought had thinner mats in them, i swapped them out. Also, not wanting to have some sheets of glass just sitting someplace in my craft room, I decided to put the glass in the frame, under the mat, for the time being, so it would be kept safe, with the frames until after we get pictures printed.

To dress up the frames, since there wasn't a picture in the middle yet, i hand stamped the "please sign" notes for the picture openings. then just used a tiny bit of tape to hold it in place, on the back of the mat.

putting the note inside the frame worked well, because one of my groomsmen, or someone i don't really know who, took the frames from the welcome table during the reception to go to each table to make sure everyone signed it, which i was very happy about, and didn't plan on doing. Only thing, some one's hot dog signed the frame with a tiny spot of mustard... i will try to cover it or something.

COST OF PROJECT: $37.50

• Signature mats: 2 x $0.75= $1.50


• Frames: 2 x i think, $15


• Pens: 2 (2 packs) x $3something


• stamp and ink for note: leftover from Napkin Rolls and already owned

I gotta tell ya, I really like the Sharpie Pens, they worked very well on the signature mats, no smudging and I've been using them since the wedding, and they work very well. a clean bold ink. just don't leave the cap off, I made that mistake once, it dried out :(

Also, the note inside matches other signs I made, for the cupcake flavors, bathroom door sign, and place cards for the reserved table seats.

ooh goodie... bags

so i originally wasnt going to do goodie bags for the kiddos, but i love kids and was doing good on the budget and to-do list, so when i found a package of 60 mini card games like these:

for $8 at costco, i couldnt pass it up. i knew i had about 20 clear cellophane goodie bags leftover from another occastion and a big ziplock of small toys and goodies from other goodie bags and pinata, i decided to go ahead and make up goodie bags. each one had a card game deck, an orange or blue tootsie pop (we picked through the bulk candy bin at Winco for the wedding colors. 2 orange wrapped off brand peanut butter cups , a few little toys, a puzzle book, and a noise maker.

(yes my then-fiance thought i was nuts for including noisemakers, but i really wasnt worried about the noise, i trust parents not to let the kids play with them for the ceremony and wasnt worried about the reception. it was pretty casual. afterwards, i dont regret it at all, i dont remember anything negative about the goodie bags. )

i tied each bag up with ribbon, and put them all in a wrapped box lid. (some were wrapped different and were peanut free, with carmel cups instead of pb cups)

we ended up with about 10 extra. some kids got 1 at the RD and 1 on wedding day. i had gifts for all the 11 kids in my wedding, but my bridesmaid and groomsman brought their kids to the RD, and since they didnt have gifts, i gave them a goodie bag early.

since we didnt ask for exact RSVP #s I wasnt sure how many children would actually be there, but i went through the guest list and estimated if everyone brought their kids, how many i would need. i counted about 40, but since there were 60 card games, i planned to make all 60, but i only had 59 baggies.

even though i tied them with curling ribbon, it was easier to twist-tie them shut first, then add the

The bags were a big hit, and the parents were happy for the thought put into giving the kids wedding favors, no one missed not getting traditional wedding favors.

COST OF PROJECT: under $30 for 59 bags with lots of leftover goodies.

• card games: $8 (i also saw the same things in smaller amounts in the halloween aisle at walgreens, but it was a better deal at costco, extras will be used for other goodies later.
• baggies: i think, $2 for 50, with twist ties + some i had from before
• candy: under $1o
• other misc toys and puzzle books: under $10 the party aisle at walmart
• ribbon: free, leftover from my Spring Wreath
• box: free and recycled printer paper box lid
• wrapping paper: leftover from Card Box and wrapping attendant gifts

Afterwards, I had quite the mess in my craft room and had to organize it, I undid the leftover baggies to store for future occasions. Possibly Christmas, since our budget wont let us get gifts for each kid individually.

Card Box

I made my own CARDS box. This ended up working very well, people knew right where to put the cards, it helped decorate the gift table, and we used it to store all the cards and very small gifts after the wedding.

after seeing lots of blog posts, forum posts and bio pages about card boxes, i decided i was NOT going to spend much money. i certaintly wasnt going to buy craft cardboard boxes at $7-$15 each. Mine was fashioned out of a printer paper box. My MIL brings these home from the office for organizing and storage. i wrapped both the bottom and top seperately. I cut a slit centered in the lower half of the lid with a craft knife. to clean up the edges of the slit, i tucked one peice of ribbon in the end of the slit, taped it from the inside and around the top. did the same on the other side. then added a length of ribbon, overlapping the first one above and below the slit. then wrapped the teal ribbon around the bottom lining it up with the top. i simply secured the wrapping paper and tape with simple scotch tape. I cut the word "Cards" out with my cricut and glue-sticked them on. The paper flowers,and rhinestone stickers were left over from my votive holder make over.

COST OF PROJECT: practically free but if i hadnt had the leftovers, would have been like $9

• Paper flowers: leftover from other project, but the entire package was $3.99 at party depot.
• wrapping paper: i think, $2.50 a roll at walmart. i also used it to wrap attenant gifts too.
• ribbon: on sale at michaels for $1/roll. didnt use an entire roll
• tape: was originally 3/$1 at dollar tree.
• lettering: already had the paper in my scrapbook supplies.
• glue stick: idk i had it on hand from way before
• box: free and recycled!