Pantene Beautiful Lengths

In memory of my grandmother and in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month I cut my hair tonight to give to Pantene Beautiful Lengths. My sister inspired me when she cut her hair a few months ago and donated it to Locks of Love. I thought it was so nice of her {she is the best}. I was a little nervous about cutting my hair but I'm so happy I did and that I can give it away for such a good cause :) I hope other people are inspired too! :)

{my grandmother}

{my sister}

{my ponytail to give away}

some extra information
you only need to donate 8 inches of hair
it takes six ponytails to make one wig
Pantene Beautiful Lengths has collected 80,000 ponytails!

Our Family Tree

I was inspired to make our own family tree when I saw this hand-lettered family tree from Martha Stewart.

materials
11"x14" white photograph frame
11"x14" piece of white poster board
18"x18" piece of brown cardstock
24" of ribbon
brown marker pen
double sided tape
pencil
small piece of white card stock
white gen roller pen

I began by asking my mom and Eric's mom for the names and correct spellings of our family members all the way to our great grandparents. After I received all the names I created a draft of our family tree on a piece of white poster board that I cut to 11"x14" to make sure all of the names fit in the photograph frame. Then I cut the piece of brown cardstock to 11"x14".

I started at the bottom of the piece of brown cardstock leaving a little room too put the ribbon and our family tree label. I used a white gel roller pen too write the names on the brown cardstock. My siblings' names created the trunk of the tree {Eric is an only child} and then mine and Eric's name were the first two branches. I included our parents, grandparents, and great grandparents.

After all of the names were written I let the ink dry a little before placing it in the photograph frame. Finally before placing it in the frame I wrapped a piece of aqua blue ribbon at the bottom and placed a small piece of white cardstock that I wrote our family tree on and secured them both with double sided tape. I used our family tree to decorate the fireplace mantle we were married in front of at our ceremony and now it is on the fireplace mantle in our house :)

Ribbon Wands

I was inspired by Sarah from Classic Bride to make these ribbon wands for our wedding.

To make them I used white ribbon, white dowels from Michaels, and double sided tape. I cut the ribbon into twelve inch pieces and placed a good sized piece of double sided tape at the end of the ribbon. Then I wrapped the ribbon around the top of the dowel. I wasn't so handy with a glue gun so I used double sided tape instead and it worked really well. After I finished them I practiced waving them just to make sure the ribbon stayed put.

My two older brothers {also our ushers} handed the ribbon wands out to our guests with our programs. It was so fun to see our guests wave them as we walked down the aisle after our ceremony :)

Tagged

image from In This Instance

I was tagged by Tara from In This Instance to share six quirks about myself :)
1. I love the snow but I don't really like cold weather.
2. I can fall asleep anywhere.
3. When I read a magazine I start at the last page.
4. I don't like tomatoes but I like ketchup, pasta sauce, and tomato soup.
5. I love doing laundry and I think washing dishes is relaxing.
6. I save all my boarding passes and ticket stubs.

Here are the rules:
1. link back to the person who tagged you
2. mention the rules on your blog
3. tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. tag 6 following bloggers by linking to them
5. leave a comment on each of the tagged bloggers blogs letting them know they've been tagged and
6. you can now display this charming dalek image Songy at Style Discovery created when tagged!

I tag: An Atlanta Bride, Classic Bride, East Side Bride, Peonies and Polaroids, Peony::Love, and Tying the Knot :)

Urban Outfitters Wishlist

I have loved Urban Outfitters ever since my first trip to their store in New York City when I was in high school. It was the first job I had in Boston while going to school. For a short time my friend and I worked at the store in Harvard Square together :) I love all of these things!

images from Urban Outfitters

Classic Bride is Getting Married

Sarah from Classic Bride is getting married today!
I hope they have the happiest wedding day :)

image from Martha Stewart

A Few More Brunch Details

I made the just married banner using the template from Martha Stewart and printed it on yellow sheets of cardstock I found at Michaels. Then I cut out ducks to add to the ends and strung it all together with yellow ribbon.

{click to enlarge}

To make the crossword puzzles I used excel and printed the text in blue ink on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets of white cardstock. While looking at all the new Martha Stewart stuff at Walmart I found blue pencils. It was so much fun watching our family and friends fill them out. Everyone did such a great job getting all of the answers right. {except my brother who made it his own and filled in the funniest answers}

I'm so happy we had a brunch. It was simple and so relaxed. We had bagels with cream cheese, fruit, pastries, yogurt with granola, juice, coffee, and starfish cookies :)

Starfish Cookies

The day after our wedding we had a brunch for all of our guests. It was very relaxed and it was so nice to see everyone again. The day before we left for Duck I baked starfish cookies to have at our brunch. I just rolled out premade sugar coookie dough, cut them out with a starfish cookie cutter, and sprinkled them with pretty sanding sugar. Then I packaged them all up into small bags I found at Michaels and tied them with blue ribbon. I used the cake stands again to display them at our brunch!

image from my mom

{I'm so happy my mom took so many photographs}

Our Cupcake Stands

These are the cake stands we used for the cupcakes at our wedding. The extra cupcakes that didn't fit on the stands we placed on silver trays {that were at the Saltaire}. We found them at Macy's and were fairly inexpensive. I like them because they are simple, pretty, and we will definitely use them again for holidays, parties, or a Wednesday :)

{I was excited when I saw them on the cover of the new Martha Stewart Weddings too!}

North Carolina State Fair

A few pictures from the North Carolina State Fair. We saw fuzzy baby chicks, shared a funnel cake, and saw Bobby Flay. It was a lot of fun:)

Going To See Bobby Flay

Tonight we are going to the North Carolina State Fair to see Bobby Flay. I can't wait to see what the State Fair is all about. Bobby Flay is to Eric what Martha Stewart is to me :)

image from the N.C. State Fair

Happy Birthday Nicky

{birthday crown I made for my sister's birthday}

Today is my sister's birthday! I can't believe my little sister is 27 :)

Our Cooking Wine

We decided to make the wine for our wedding. One of the great things about the Saltaire is that we could bring our own alcohol. At the end of March we began our wine making adventure. In June we tasted it and it wasn't quite right so we made a few changes.

When it was time to bottle it for our wedding it still wasn't the best drinking wine. Eric had an idea and tried some of the wine to make chicken scampi and our cooking wine was created! We bottled the wine, labeled it with a cute story, and gave it to our wedding guests :)

{we bought the wine to serve at our wedding from Trader Joe's}

Our Signature Drink

The signature drink at our wedding was a Fuzzy Duck inspired by our location {Duck, North Carolina} and cleverly named by my mom :)

our recipe
1 1/2 ounces of rum
1/2 ounce of peach schnapps
3 ounces of pineapple juice
fill with ice

Family

"Other things may change us,
but we start and end with family."
Anthony Brandt

Our Menu Cards

Our menu cards were very simple. We just printed dark brown text on white cardstock and placed an embossed seal {the same ones we used for our CD favors} at the top of each card. At our wedding we had a buffet so I thought it was a nice idea to have them at each place setting :)

Our Table Names

Instead of table numbers we named our tables after these wood decorations I found at A.C. Moore and Michaels. They were unpainted so I just used a basic acrylic paint to paint them all white. At each table they were placed against our aqua blue mason jar centerpieces. The best part was that it was less than ten dollars to make them all :)

Our Escort Cards

{mine and Eric's escort card}

We printed our guests' names and table names in dark brown ink on escort cards that coordinated with our programs from Michaels. It felt more personal to use just the first names, which worked out well because none of our guests had the same first name :) The table names matched decorations that were on each table {I'll post about those next}. Finally I placed the escort cards in two galvanized trays sprinkled with these small starfish and sea glass in shades of aqua blue and white.

Our Ceremony Programs

At first glance our programs look simple, but they were a little tricky to print. I joke that Eric wrote a program to print our programs :) We printed the text for the cover and insert in dark brown ink a few days before our wedding. I'm embarrassed to say I didn't enough time to put them all together so I brought all of the pieces with me to Duck.

The Thursday night before our wedding our families were together so I had a lot of help putting our programs together :) My brother {recruited by his fiancee and my bridesmaid} folded the insert and I went over the fold with my bone folder {I'm a little detail oriented}. Then my sister attached the insert to the cover and my brother's fiancee wrapped them all with pretty aqua blue ribbon.

The funniest part of the night was that my brother recorded us assembling the programs. We were all so tired and the video is hysterical! Everyone was so nice to help and I think our programs turned out so pretty!

Special Reservations

I made these simple cards to reserve the front row seats at our ceremony for my mom, Eric's parents and grandmother, and for my two older brothers {also our ushers}. I used some extra wine bottle labels that I had and printed them with dark brown ink. Then I just adhered them to aqua blue cardstock from Paper Source and placed them on their chairs before our ceremony.

image from Eric's mom

My "Showerette" Thank You Notes

The birthday after I got engaged my friend gave me these note cards monogrammed with my future initials along with some pretty pale pink stationery. I've been keeping them in my desk for over a year and was very excited to use them for my "showerette" thank you notes.

Our One Month Anniversary

{card I made for Eric's cousin's birthday}

We have been married a month! This is my hundredth blog post too :)

Our Wedding Photographs

We should have the photographs from our wedding in six to eight weeks {maybe sooner}. I can't wait!!!

image from Paper Source

Our Wedding Soundtrack

One of my favorite compliments from our guests was how much they liked the music at our wedding :)

For our CD favor we just used simple white CDs and clear cases that we found at Target. Then I just embellished the cover with a pretty Martha Stewart sticker {my sister's idea}. We picked songs from every part of our wedding and created our own wedding soundtrack. I still listen to this CD in my car and I love it!

Here are the songs we chose for our CD:

Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole
Do You Remember by Jack Johnson
Summer Wind by Michael Buble
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong
Better Together by Jack Johnson
Pirate Looks at 40 by Jack Johnson
Lucky by Jason Mraz featuring Colbie Caillat
Stick By You by Andrew Lipke
Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin
Ain't That a Kick in the Head by Dean Martin
Touch the Sky by Kanye West
Making Memories of Us by Keith Urban
Let the Good Times Roll by B.B. King
Summer Love by Justin Timberlake
Splish Splash by Bobby Darin
Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley
Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs
Mambo Italiano by Dean Martin
It's Tricky by Run-D.M.C.
Love Like This by Natasha Bedingfield featuring Sean Kingston
Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles

Reception Music

{remote Eric used to start and
stop the music at our wedding}

Eric picked the music for the reception and during the music picking process there was a lot of impromptu dancing in our kitchen :) We both love music and listen to everything from country to rap and everything in between. I asked Eric how he picked the songs and this is what he said :) "So I spent most of the time thinking about how other people would feel or think about the songs, and making sure the two of us would like it too except for the slow songs which you and I both picked. Then it was just about if we liked it and if I like what it said about us :)"

Here are some of the songs Eric chose for the reception:

Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin {our first song}
Me and Mrs. You by Michael Buble
A Wink and a Smile by Harry Connick, Jr.
Let's Get It Started by the Black Eyed Peas
What I Got by Sublime
Walk This Way by Run-D.M.C.
Forever by Ben Harper
Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Dwight Yoakam
All Shook Up by Elvis Presley
Jump, Jive, An' Wail by Louis Prima
My Love by Justin Timberlake
Glamorous by Fergie
The Twist by Chubby Checker
Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
Maybelline by Chuck Berry
U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer
When the Stars Go Blue by Tim McGraw
In Da Club by 50 Cent
At Last by Eva Cassidy
Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles {our last song}

Dinner Music

After the cocktail hour we had our first dance to Better Together by Jack Johnson. We were lucky enough to have Eric's cousin {also one of his groomsmen} be our announcer for the wedding. He was amazing and so much fun! Halfway through our first dance we had our bridal party join us. Then everyone found their tables and my older brother, my sister, and the best man gave their toasts. They were the perfect mix of sweet and funny :) Then we had dinner!

Here are the songs I chose for the dinner music:

{click on image}

image from iTunes

Happy Birthday Damon

Today is my brother's birthday! :)