CRAFTerlorette party...

   i never thought too long & hard about having or planning a wedding, but one thing i always knew is that it would be kid friendly.  i can remember going to weddings as a child and having the best time!! i have over 20 cousins and more than half of them are under 21.  there was never a question of whether or not to have them all there!   I wanted them to feel included.  my CRAFTerlorette party was a great way to do that...and get some important wedding stuff done!

My grandmother Louise offered her wedding dress to me when i got engaged.  it was too small to wear, but she said that i could use the material.  But again, like i said, i am one in 24!! i could not use the whole dress for myself.

i ended up cutting the dress into pieces to make small bags for each of my girl cousins.  I bought special labels for them and sewed them inside.  I figured that they would be their 'something old' when they got married.   i made a special one for myself, my flower girls, and even my grandmother.

a few months before the wedding i got all of my girl cousins together for what i decided to call my CRAFTerlorette Party.   i was going to present them with the bags, we could have some pizza and work on my wedding decorations together.  i thought it would be a fun bonding activity and get them excited for the wedding.  for some of them, this would be their first!  i invited my grandparents as well!

the night was a hit! we listened to a mix cd that i made to get us in the wedding mood.  i surprised everyone with the bags, and my grandparents were thrilled!  

after that it was down to business. we worked really hard that night and got all of my 22 table centerpieces done!!

the look: I didn't want to use real flowers.  i'm not a flower person really and it just seems like a huge waste of money.  as an alternative, i bought tons of colorful cupcake liners and we made our own flowers.  we used a skewer, a styrofoam ball, and pins to stick the wrappers on.  my fiance and i had collected vases of all shapes, sizes, and colors over the summer from a local thrift store, each for under $5!  so in the vases we put a bit of sand, the flower cup cakes, some other filler, bunting, and a felt heart on a stick.  

the bunting was pretty awesome.  my aunt had given me a bunch of old sheet music from her father who was a musician.  since my fiance is one too, music was going to play a key role in our wedding.  we cut the sheet paper into tiny triangles and punched holes in the top 2 corners.  we strung them with yarn and tied them in the arrangements.  we also used the sheet paper to go under the vases on the tables, but we hole punched the edges with a decorative puncher.

the felt hearts i cut out myself.  i stuffed them and hand stitched them shut with bakers twine. i had labels made for these as well that read "John & Lauren" and the date.  since they were on sticks i could totally picture people taking them home and sticking them in a potted plant or something. 

the whole idea really came together, but my favorite part was what i had given my cousins each as homework to bring that night.  i asked each one to color a picture of me, john, us together, a wedding-it was pretty open.  i was going to frame each one and set them on the tables.  their drawings really blew me away!