Wednesday, March 13, 2013

How it Was Made!

In early January, we revealed to y'all our bridal party. (You can read the original post here!) We said we'd provide you the steps on how they were made, and here you have it!




Items Used:
  • X-acto knife
  • Tape
  • Paint brush
  • Bells
  • Ornament 
  • Scribble paint
  • Ribbon
  • Glitter foam sheet
  • Card stock paper
  • Glass plates
  • Mod Podge
  • Photo
  • Cookies
  • Icing


The project was actually very simple, but just very time-consuming.

Below is a picture of the finished ornament. As you can see, all you essentially need is cardstock, ribbon, bells, and scribble paint.



These blank ornaments were found at Joanne's Fabrics for about $0.76. Super easy to decorate since they were flat:


Just cut some cardstock into circles and Modpodge those babies onto the each side of the ornament. (We decided to use a glittery foam paper for the front to give it a more Christmas-y look) Initials were drawn on using scribble paint. And a fine-tip sharpie was used to pop the question "Will you be my..."

Ribbon was used to hang the ornaments. To add some frill, leave some ribbon for slack.


Add some jingley bells. Just string them on some ribbon and tie 'em on to make a bow.


How easy was that? Now onto the plates...

We used an X-acto knife to cut out the words BRIDESMAID and MAID OF HONOR, but if you want to save a couple hours, you can just buy some letters at the craft store.


Once you got your letters taken care of, get your patterned cardstock you want for the background of the glass plate. Grab a pencil and trace your cardstock into a circle. You'll actually need to trace your cardstock with something slightly bigger than the plate - maybe half an inch bigger. We used a popcorn bowl.

Next step is to grab a photo of you and the bridesmaid/maid-of-honor and figure out where you'd like it placed on the plate. We decided to have the words Bridesmaid/Maid of Honor on top and photo on bottom. Once you have your photo in place, you can go ahead and Modpodge the crap out of your glass plate using a paintbrush. TIP: Make sure to place the photo before you Modpodge or else the photo will be slightly warped.


After this, you can add your letters. Start from the outside-in. (Meaning to stick the first letter and last letter on first, to make sure all the letters fit on the plate - ie: B and D for bridesmaid, then R and I, etc.) Then, stick on your patterned cardstock.


It'll take a few hours for it to stick on there. As it's hardening, you'll notice some areas aren't sticking to the plate so you will need to add more Modgepodge. The Modgepodge dries clear so don't worry about any excess showing up when it's wet. Let it dry overnight. The next day, slap more of that podge onto the bottom of the cardstock. This will need a couple layers and another night to dry.

Finally, the plate will be ready to hold some cookies. The last step is to buy a dozen cookies and some icing. We drew question marks using the icing, and it took a few hours to dry. The last step is to cover the plate with the cookies, making sure to cover up the words bridesmaid/maid-of-honor.


TIP: When presenting the girls with their ornament and plate, make sure to package the ornament in gift wrap with a note that asks them to open it first. That way, the girls will read "Will you be my..." first before revealing the words bridesmaid/maid-of-honor underneath the cookies.

Monday, January 14, 2013

This Groom's Going to Be a Groomsman!

Over the holidays, our good friends Kristen and Justin (finally) got engaged!

Justin and Aaron became friends while undergrads at Texas Tech University. These two geonerds got to know each other very well as they spent sleepless nights in labs and shared tents during all those field trips.

Just yesterday, Aaron received a phone call from his ole buddy Justin. After much-needed catching up, he had asked Aaron if he would be his groomsman and the answer was obvious!

Kristen and Justin are quite possibly the funnest couple we know, and we just know their wedding will be a blast! 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Will You Be My...

We officially have a bridal party, y'all! We are so happy to introduce to everyone our ladies in waiting:


Natali as our Maid of Honor

AND

Savannah and Nicole as our Bridesmaids



This past Christmas, these ladies were given a couple special gifts from Judy. As an early Christmas present, each lady received a chunky envelope which sat on top a larger package. The chunky envelope had asked to be opened first:




Inside the envelope, was a sparkly, jingly Christmas tree ornament with their initial on the front. On the other side of the ornament, the beginning of the question had been asked:




Next, the ladies were to open the larger package. Inside were cookies iced with question marks which laid atop a glass plate. (Each lady received a different patterned plate that Judy felt would be suitable to their respective tastes.) The ladies would then remove the cookies, revealing the surprise ending to the ornament's question:




Fortunately, they all said "Yes!" Be sure to check back later to specifically find out how Judy popped the question, step-by-step. In the meantime, get to know our bridal party!



Saturday, December 8, 2012

Gettin' Crafty!

While Aaron has been away on a field trip (to the Bahamas, that jerk!), Judy has designated our dining room as crafts central. Welcome home, honey! ;)

What's she making? Well, we want to keep that a surprise... For now! Check back in a couple weeks for the reveal and comprehensive DIY steps. Get excited, y'all!



Monday, December 3, 2012

International Love! ♫ ♪

Know that song "International Love?" Well, get acquainted for we are planning not just one, but TWO overseas trips to celebrate our union! You read that right, folks. We are planning on visiting Norway, along with Indonesia! This can probably go out without saying, but Judy's fresh-off-the-boat parents are definitely elated that their daughter is able celebrate her marriage in their respected countries.

Instead of celebrating New Year's Eve in Norway for our honeymoon as originally planned, we may travel during the summer. We are planning to have a big engagement party with her Norwegian family and friends whom she hasn't seen in ages. Bali will actually replace Norway as the destination for our honeymoon. Not only will be able to celebrate married life surrounded in paradise, but Judy will finally see her Indonesian family, whom she hasn't seen since she was a tiny little nugget!

(Yes, our actual wedding is still going to happen in Houston next year. And please, do not forget to wear your party pants...)




We'd also like to give a big shout out to our great friend Stacy on landing a j-o-b! She has been a friend of ours ever since she and Judy became best friends while studying abroad in Spain. (Can this post get any more international or what?!?!) You can read all about her latest chapter in life here!

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

She Got it From Her Mama!

If you've ever met Judy's mom, you know she's quite the fire cracker. Something you might not know is that she is also a contract florist in Houston, and of course, she'll be doing our flowers for the wedding. We are truly lucky!

She doesn't just stop there though. Below is a picture of Judy's mom showcasing a fascinator she recently made for fun. Looks like we know who'll be custom making Judy's fascinator!



Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Time to Create the Save-the-Dates!

Aaron is purchasing the whole Adobe Creative Suite (mostly for his poster presentations and partially for Judy's nerd life), and once Judy gets her mitts on Adobe InDesign, she'll be able to finally create our Save-the-Dates. Just in time for our trip to Houston this Thanksgiving, where we'll print them from her parent's fancy printer. Being a bride on a budget is easy when you have the resources!

Judy's been browsing the interwebs for some unique ideas to incorporate into our Save-the-Dates. We wanted to be sure not to use something too common, since our wedding won't be. Don't get us wrong . . . we're going to have a standard wedding, but it will just be more of a party for our friends. Nothing too stuffy! And we definitely wanted to exhibit that in the Save-the-Dates, invitations, and what not.

Another thing we have to keep in mind is hoping you like them. After all, you're the ones that have to look at 'em!


PS: TODAY IS OUR FOUR-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Monday, October 8, 2012

To-Do's Before the I-Do's!

Judy's good friend Mindy shared this gem with her today. It's a nice general timeline for any bride-to-be. Easy on the eyes and well-organized, too. According to this, we're actually on par with our planning process. Guess that's a perk of having a wedding date so far away! We definitely have loads of planning left to do, but this guy is making things seem a little less daunting:



If you have some free time, you should definitely browse through Mindy's blog! Lots of good stuff in there - creativity in the advertising world, quirky images she finds from her tumblr, and plenty of cool stuff in general.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Busy Thanksgiving!

In preparation for our trip to Houston this Thanksgiving, we are starting to accumulate a list of things needed to be done while we are there:

(1) The number one task we need accomplished is securing a venue. We have our top three venue picks, and are kind of, sort of, completely obsessed with one in particular. Each venue is very affordable (Yes!) and very "us." We wanted to make sure the location of our ceremony and reception was a true reflection of ourselves. Of course, another major factor was affordability; which, much thanks to the vast size of Houston, was not a very difficult thing to find!

(2) We are considering using a day-of wedding coordinator to just consult on the day -of and -before the wedding; as opposed to having the wedding coordinator plan the wedding from the beginning. It offers us the luxury of having a professional help us take care of everything on the big day, but for cheaper! We have a couple consultants in mind, but we need to keep looking because their prices don't really agree to what we are willing to spend... Womp, womp.

(3) We really need to start choosing which hotels to visit for our traveling guests and/or bride & groom dressing rooms. We'll base the hotel candidates on its area and special accommodation rates. So far, I think we are looking into Houston's midtown area. We love Houston at night, and we want our guests to enjoy it as well.

Hopefully we can get it all done. We'll only be in town for a few days, with so many friends to see and things to do... No worries, we got this!

Also, get excited. Around this time is also when we find out our wedding party. We are keeping it intimate and thinking we only want two bridesmaids and two groomsmen, with one maid of honor and one best man. The decision to have a small wedding party was tough at first. While we both have several close friends, it was difficult to narrow them down to just four or five bridesmaids/groomsmen. But when we narrowed it down to just two, it actually made it easier. We love all our close friends so much, but this just made the most sense for us. We love you all!

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Anna's Wedding Blog!

Judy's friend Anna, an old college friend from her freshman year at Hawai`i Pacific University, also got engaged this summer! Y'all should definitely check out her wedding blog as she ties the knot with her beau Michael. Not only is Anna a doll-faced angel, but this past week, Judy spent some time sprucing up the design of Anna's blog. Read all about Anna's journey to the altar while checking out some of Judy's handiwork!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Fresh New Layout!

Judy's creativity juices have been overflowing lately, and she has used some of that to update the look of our blog. If only she could use that zeal toward some wedding planning! So much left to plan, but we think the pieces will start fitting together whenever we officially decide which venue to use. Once that's settled, we can actually begin to tackle the other aspects of the wedding planning. Of course, we won't be able to shop around for venues until we are back in Houston for Thanksgiving break. Until then, we can use this time worrying about that darn guest list.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Date is SET!

It's official. We have set our date!

There were some factors we needed to weigh. It definitely needed to be conducive to Aaron's school/research schedule and Judy's parents being in Angola and all. Since her parents plan on returning to Houston every Christmas, and Aaron having Christmas break available, we figured that is probably around the time we could get married.

We also have friends and family traveling to Houston for the big day. So, we wanted to be able to have them make the most of their stay with all that Houston has to offer (For family-friendly ideas, check out Things to Do). That's when we opted to have our big day on a Thursday. Not only are we saving a LOT of monies on whichever venue we choose, but it allows the flexibility of using the weekend for some fun activities (and party time with our long-distance friends, of course).

With those few factors in mind, we also didn't want the wedding day to be too close to Christmas Day or New Years Eve. It took some deliberation (and caused some headache), but we can now present to you... our wedding date: December 12, 2013.

Even though we have yet to book our venue - which we will do around Thanksgiving - we doubt we'll have any issues reserving a date so far in advance. Hooray!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Engagement Photos!

In our previous post, we mentioned we would use the travel time to the photo shoot as a reflection period. Now that we have our little list of wedding ambitions, we can tailor our wedding-planning to ensure we have a great time at our own wedding. Lots of good shtuff on that list, but we'll keep it to ourselves. ;)

The photo shoot location was stunning. Who knew West Texas had such a landscape? We definitely need to return, and maybe spend a night at one of the camp sites. As for the engagement photos, we could not be any happier with how they turned out. Much thanks to our amazing photographer, Amanda!










Saturday, September 1, 2012

The Bigger Picture!

Tomorrow, we are shooting our engagement pictures. It's about a two-hour drive to the location, and we plan to use this time to seriously reflect on the wedding as a whole. Soon, wedding planning will get in full gear, and before delving into the planning frenzy, we want to figure out the bigger picture. What goals do really want to achieve for our wedding? What are our objectives going to be? And then, later, we'll tailor our tactics to these requirements. (That is the public relations ladder for success after all, don't ya know!)

This can go without saying, but it's going to be a part-ay! We also want to focus on the other important things, like spending enough time with guests. And look at that -- we already have two goals! It's going to be a lengthy drive, let's hope our list is not.

On a side note... it's game day, y'all! Wreck 'em!

Friday, August 31, 2012

This Little Fellow is Getting Around!

We are in the process of collecting addresses from all the friends and family we don't already have. These pages are filling up at a steady pace, but there is still a lot of addresses needed. A big chunk of the addresses in there are of family. Now, just gotta' get our friends in there. Expect a text from us some time in the future, girls and boys!


Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Girls Engagement Party!

Judy was working in Las Vegas at the time of the engagement this summer, so she was pretty excited to go to Houston to celebrate her new rock with her girls. Her best friend (and everybody's favorite hostess!) Natali helped her plan an intimate girls night to celebrate the engagement. There was plenty of food and drinks to go around, plus games and juicy stories that made the night memorable.

Because Aaron has a lot of family and good friends in St. Louis, we were thinking about doing a small engagement party there for Aaron. Winery, anyone? He also has a ton of family in San Antonio (and his dad in Houston!) that we want to celebrate with, too. ROAD TRIP! Not sure what weekend or holiday will be feasible yet for either, but we're crossing our fingers.

Below is a collage of photos taken during Judy's girls engagement party. Thanks to everyone who made the celebration! Those who could not make it were definitely there in spirit!  



Monday, August 27, 2012

Buff Bods in Training!

Lubbock has a really great options when it comes to Cross Fit. We're going to check out one in particular that we're pretty excited about. What makes it so special? It's donation-based!

We're going to measure ourselves and get those numbers up here so we can track the transformation. Additionally, we are each going to set up milestone challenges, leading up to an end goal nearing the date of the wedding. Yeah buddy!

Thursday, August 23, 2012

This Bride's Going to Be a Bridesmaid!

Judy got something really awesome in the mail today. One of her best friends is getting married next summer in Erie, Pennsylvania. They were roommates their freshman year and have stayed best friends for the past six years. Today, Judy received a letter from her asking her to be a bridesmaid, and of COURSE she said "Yes!"

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Dena and Nick are getting married!

Nick is Aaron's mother's fiancé's son. He proposed to his fiancée Dena earlier this year, and we just received our invitation to their wedding! Yes!! The two are such a nice couple and we couldn't be happier for them. We simply can't wait to celebrate their union this October 20th in Belleville, Illinois with friends and family!


Monday, August 20, 2012

Engagement Photos Scheduled!

We are so pumped about our engagement photos. We are excited to announce Aaron's cousin's wife Amanda as our photographer. We'll be photographed over Labor Day weekend at a pretty sweet location. We think they're going to turn out quite nicely!

Judy's going to use one of the pictures to create the save-the-dates. She's excited to get crackin' on those. Now we just need to figure out who we're giving them out to. Daunting.