Card Box by Amanda of VintageGlam

You may remember Amanda from her inspiring wedding that I featured back in March. She has started her own blog, VintageGlam, and if you haven't seen it yet, be sure to stop by and check it out. She's got tons of great DIY projects and downloadable templates, along with all kinds of ideas for your wedding. Today we're lucky enough to have her stop by and share a project with us - a pretty box for guests to leave cards and notes at your wedding.


Step 1: Sand the box entirely.

Step 2: Spray paint or stain your box.

Step 3: Cut a 10"x14" rectangle of a foam sheet (you can also trace the box on the foam). With a x acto knife, cut a slit of 1/4"x6".

Step 4: Cover the foam with fabric. Flip ip upside down and trace the slit with a sharpie (suggestion: when tracing, just make one straight line. I tried cutting a perfect rectangular slit on the fabric the first try around and it didn't work because the fabric stretched out).


Step 5: Using adhesive spray, glue the fabric onto the foam board. Cut small chips of foam board and place in the slit until it dries. This will make sure the fabric covering the slit will stick to the foam. I also found out that red polished nails won't work well with spray adhesive (my nail polish started to rub on the fabric). So ladies, make sure you remove your nail polish before working on this project! (I had to learn the hard way, unfortunately.)

Step 6: Measure the thickness of the edge of the box. This will be the slack needed to secure the top of the cardbox.

Step 7: Make a frame with the smaller rectangle

Step 8: Cut 4 strips of fabric. They don't need to be perfectly cut as they will the covering only the edges of the frame. Glue the strips of fabric around the frame. Make sure the edges are not bulky, otherwise it won't fit in the box.


Step 9: After both pieces are dried, glue them together. This is the trickiest part because they have to be aligned in order to fit (see photo of the finished top, above). Measure twice to glue it once!


Step 10: (Disregard the floral tape in this photo...you won't need it.) Snip the stems off two fabric flowers of your choice. Cut a 5"x5" piece of fabric from leftovers. Fold in half. Draw a leaf shape on one side and cut.


Step 11: Cut a wire slightly longer than your leaf. Place the wire on the right side of the fabric and sew.




Step 12: With a hot glue gun, glue the flowers and the leaves onto the card box top.



Thanks so much to Amanda for stopping by to share this project with us! Be sure to take a look at her blog, VintageGlam, for more ideas and inspiration.

Centerpiece from Chelsea Fuss

Hi all! I am on an airplane today, but we have the lovely and talented Chelsea Fuss from one of my all-time favorite blogs, {frolic!}, here to share a fruit and floral autumn centerpiece that you can do yourself.


1. Gather containers from your kitchen and from friends and family. Choose a variety (3 heights, 3 finishes) but make sure there is a little bit of repetition. Here, I've chosen white bowls from my kitchen (from Crate & Barrel and Target), vintage milk bottles (from my mother's collection) and little china plates (from my grandmother). This will save on cost. Plus, all the containers can be returned to their owners filled with gorgeous blossoms or yummy fruit.

2. Find a friend with a dahlia garden (I was lucky enough to be able to cut armloads from a friend's garden right before they were ready to dig up the tubers). If you don't have a friend with a garden, dahlias in season will still be quite inexpensive at a local farm. Here, I cut only the ones that looked pretty to me and only within the same color family blush, apricot, and coral. Stick to one color per container.

3. For the roundy moundy arrangements, gather 3 or 4 blossoms in your hand and cut them very short. Sit them all together in one half of the container and make sure they are resting on the rim and then add another two or three groupings. They will hold each other up. (you can also use foam, frogs, or grids if you prefer those methods).


4. For the taller arrangements, I chose a less dense flower (single-petaled dahlia) to let it all breathe a little. Stick one or two stems in those (I have no rules about height, just clip the stem until it looks good to you). Make sure you have some that are the same for repetition's sake.

5. Lastly, pile seasonal fruits on china plates and intermix with the flower arrangements.

6. I've placed my centerpiece on a beautiful mango-colored raw silk runner. It helps to reinforce the color story and add texture. If you are a talented seamstress or have a friend or family member who sews, I suggest making colorful runners. Then you can just rent plain, floor-length linens for underneath. Or, better yet use rustic farm tables.

A huge thank you to Chelsea for stopping by today and sharing your creativity with us! If you're in the Portland area and are looking for someone to design your next party (or wedding!), then Chelsea's your girl - she is now taking on small events for 2009. You can read all about it here, and check out her portfolio here.

Sunday Edition #12

by Jake McBride for Christian Oth Studio

Real Wedding Sunday: Liz & Sean

When Jocelyn Filley sent me this wedding, I knew I just had to feature it. Not only is it lovely, but it is a perfect example of how an imperfect day, where it seems that nothing else could possibly go wrong, can still make for a beautiful, meaningful and fun celebration. I'll let Liz tell most of the story...


Our biggest hope was that we could create a wedding that would be beautiful and feel very personal and fun. We had 130 people in attendance. Sean and I are both very laid back and appreciated that the Beach Plum Inn on Martha's Vineyard was the perfect setting for casual elegance.


Our wedding logo, a polka-dotted fish, could be seen on many things at the wedding, including our invitations and the fishbowl that was meant for people to put their wedding cards in at the reception.












The weather. Well, what can we say. The wedding site and Friday night party site both would have been absolutely beautiful if we just could have seen on of the inn's famous sunsets. But it poured and poured and poured from Friday morning through Sunday morning. We were shocked that people even made it to the island since most flights and even ferries were cancelled! The rain was so bad that the Justice of the Peace had to stop talking during the ceremony because no one could hear him over the rain.


Flowers by Donaroma's.






Cake by Cakes by Liz.


For our wedding cake, we ordered cupcakes for everyone and then for the top of the cakestand, our baker made a polka-dotted fish cake in our wedding colors - but on the way to the wedding the baker had to slam on her brakes and the cake slid off her back seat and got destroyed!








Although we had sides on our tents, the band had to evacuate because a gust of wind blew the rain right under the sides of the tent. The tent was flooded and the band had to relocate to the kitchen area of the inn - not what we had in mind for aesthetics!


Band: The Mike Benjamin Band.






To ensure we had the maximum memories possible, we created a guest book station where people could take instant pics of themselves and put it in our album with a note. We also set up a "self-service video camera." We didn't want our videographer to chase people around, and our friends felt comfortable speaking to a little camera set up in the lobby.






I totally forgot this part of the chaotic story! The last day of work before I was leaving to go to Martha's Vineyard, I was running for a cab because I was late for work. My heel got caught in a groove in the sidewalk, and I tripped and fell. I broke two fingers and had a black eye! I ended up in the emergency room because one of the broken fingers was my ring finger and they wanted to cut it off! Thankfully, lots of ice and time brought the swelling down so they didn't have to.


But in spite of it all... we had such a blast! Not one person at our wedding let the rain get in the way of having a great time. Everyone was on the dance floor (outside of the kitchen). People gobbled down the delicious cupcakes and totally forgot about the actual wedding cake (which the baker brought over a new one at 10:00pm). We partied until they had to shut the lights down at the inn. It was great! It was the most informal but best flow to a wedding that I could have hoped for. And the most important thing? We got married!

Congratulations Liz and Sean! Thank you so much for sharing your wedding day with us, and for showing how important it is to remember what really matters - and that a little rain doesn't have to put a damper on a good party. I think it's safe to say that the best contingency plan is a good attitude! And thank you to Jocelyn Filley for sharing the images with us - it's so apparent from these photos that everyone had a great time. As Jocelyn said, What the day lacked in sunshine was made up for in spirit!

Sneak Peek: Liz & Sean

If you're worried about getting rained out, you have to stop by tomorrow to see Liz and Sean's wedding.

Real Wedding Saturday: Sally & Karl

Sally sent me this sweet note, and I'm so happy to share some of her wedding photos, taken by her good friend Michelle Mitchell, with you:
During my engagement, I was an avid reader of Snippet & Ink. I can't thank you enough for all the inspiration, resources, and amazing work. I wanted to share with you some photos from my recent wedding.


The garden-inspired invitations were designed by Kim Austin of Austin Press.


Sally wore Melissa Sweet's "Fern" dress, and a veil that she made out of French net and millinery flowers.






50 guests joined Sally and Karl at the Mill Rose Inn in Half Moon Bay, California. The ceremony was performed by Sally's mother's long time boyfriend and partner, John, who went through City Hall to become certified to perform the ceremony. Sally says, He is a very special person in our lives and, although not technically family, I wanted him to play a special role in the day and he did a wonderful job. It was very emotional but reassuring to have him up there with us!




Many of the details, including catering, cupcakes and flowers were provided by Fork & Spoon Productions.


Sally made the seating cards with envelopes and cards from PaperSource.








Sally's favorite detail of the day was the use of her mother's jadeite collection for the centerpieces and decor. She and Sally have been collecting Depression-era jadeite since Sally was a little girl, and gave each table a unique but cohesive look that was also meaningful and personal.


The cupcakes were in Sally and Karl's favorite flavors: chocolate with coffee frosting and vanilla with cream cheese frosting. The toppers were dolls used in Sally's grandmother's wedding in the 1940s. Sally also made a small arch out of lace, pearls and millinery flowers.




Karl is the music director at Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco, where the two met, and plays with the live band every night. He brought his saxophone to the wedding and played with the musicians, adding yet another personal touch to the wedding. One of the highlights of the evening was when Sally and Karl's talented friend, Myles Nye, broke out his tap shoes and started tap dancing to the music a-la Fred Astaire.


Later in the evening, Sally changed into a blue dress by Betsey Johnson for dancing.

Congratulations Sally and Karl! Best wishes to you both, and thank you so much for sharing your wedding with us!