Happily After All: A Crazy Lady The Morning Of

Remember how I told you I was still working on projects the morning of my wedding??  Well not only that, but I was also running around in town and going to the store and our reception venue and picking up pictures and finishing decorating and sewing sashes and getting ready.  It was a crazy, crazy morning!

I woke up around 7:30am after only about 6 hours of sleep.  It was finally the day of our wedding, the day I had been looking forward to for over a year, but I couldn't enjoy it just yet!  The vinyl I had picked up at Walmart had to be cut and turned into this:

All photos are by our wonderful photographer Brandy Swartz of Photography by Brandy unless otherwise noted.  This particular one is cropped by me.

I borrowed this sign from my boss who had used it for her daughter and niece's wedding.  I left on the congratulations and stars and the line at the bottom, and just peeled off the previous names and date and replaced it with our own.  It went very quickly with my Cricut doing all the cutting.  I did run out of vinyl though and my sister had to run back into town to get some more.  She actually couldn't find any, so we just cut out the 2, 2010 in white paper and taped it on! I don't think anyone even noticed.

Then I had to run into town and grab some pictures from Walgreen's and finish filling all of my family tree picture frames.

Unfortunately I had to pull the pictures of our cousins because I didn't have time to grab a couple extra frames that I didn't have.  That was supposed to happen Friday, but I ran out of time!  So it ended up just being our parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.  Hopefully the cousins didn't feel left out.

I also had to stop in town at our grocery store and place an order to have two dozen white and green balloons blown up.  They were busier than I was hoping so I had to pay for them and arrange for someone else to pick them up and put them on these signs:

Cropped by me.

I also had to finish filling the kids bags with treats and coloring books and bring those out to the reception venue.  There was also a couple of touch ups and additions that had to be made out there as well.  I still had to print out the poem and scripture for our reader, and I had to make sure everyone was going to be where they should be on time.

During all of this, my girls were at my house getting ready without me!  I didn't get back to the house until around 10:30 and we were supposed to be completely ready to go by 11:30 to have some quick lunch and then get dressed and do pictures with our photographer.  Think maybe I was running just a little bit behind??  It gets better...just wait!


In case you've missed anything...
Decorating the Reception Hall
Honoring Our Family
The Rehearsal

DIY: Cake Picks

I know I said yesterday I might not get around to posting a whole lot in the upcoming WEEK, but here's one for ya.  I'm actually working on this project right now, but I had to upload some pictures for my boss so I figured I'd take a break and share this with you.

Not too long ago, I decided to add another totally unnecessary project to the list.  By now I'm sure you've all seen them...

 The adorable cupcake picks!  But we're not having cupcakes.  We're having cake.  So after we cut our cake, they will take it in the back and cut it up into squares and bring it out plated to everyone immediately after dinner.  I thought these would be perfect for each cake square.

Like I said...totally unnecessary.  So it's projects like these that are stressing me out, but I take full responsibility!

Wanna see more?? Like the back maybe?
Okay!

It has MY NEW LAST NAME (almost) and our wedding date.

It's a really simple process, it's just extremely time consuming.  Here's how I did it:

1.  I printed out a bunch of circles on white cardstock.

2.  I cut the cardstock into three strips to work with.

3.  I cut out the circles with my Cricut.  If you don't have a Cricut, this won't mean much to you.  But I figured I'd go into depth for those of you with Cricuts.  You can use this method for many other projects.
Start by loading a colored piece of cardstock....this will act as your "template" of sorts.  Use the arrows to scoot down on the paper.

Keep using the arrows until you get to a location that is an "even" number and isn't 7 3/8" or something.  For this it works if you get down towards the end of your mat, so I put it at 7 down, and then I put it at 2 over so you have some wiggle room.

Then choose your circle, and the appropriate size.  I used 2" for the white circles.

And cut!

Now DON'T UNLOAD your paper.  Just use the arrow and scoot back upwards past the circle.  Take out the cut circle.  Now place your white cardstock UNDER the template and center your design under the cutout.

Now just use your arrows and come back to 7 down 2 over.  (You should still be at 2 over)  Then just repeat your last cut.  It will cut in the exact same place, leaving your template alone, and cutting out your white cardstock circle.

Then just trim off that cutout and repeat!  I did it this way for all of the circles because I didn't feel like going out and buying a circle hole punch.

Then I also used the Cricut to cut out all of my green circles at 2 1/2" I believe.  Then I just attached the white cardstock to the green cardstock.

For each pick, I used two green circles and two white circles.  In between I hotglued a toothpick because that will be the easiest to stick into a piece of cake.

And that's all there is to it!!  Just remember you'll have to repeat about 200+ times depending on the size of your wedding.

It might be a little faster if you can find a hole punch that is the right size...but in this case you would have to buy two because of the larger background circle.

I can't wait to see these in use and see what people have to say.  Just another one of those little details I love!

My First Cricut Projects

Remember how I said I was getting a Cricut for Christmas?  Well I finally got to put it to good use in these last couple of weeks.  I've just been messing around with it, and I'm still figuring out how it works.

The first thing I did was make thank you cards for my bridesmaids.

And the envelopes they go inside of.

The Cricut cut out the green Thanks! and the white paper is showing through.  It also cut the cute little black trim, and the template for folding the envelope.  Easy enough!

Then today I wanted to play with it some more, so I used it to cut out large letters to make posterboards for work.  We're going to Cheerleading State in Springfield in February and these will be much needed.

It cuts out so quickly!  I could see this being an awesome tool for teachers for decorating bulletin boards in classrooms.  I love this little toy, and I can't wait to start getting into some advanced projects with it.

I'm Super Excited!

I got a Cricut!! 

(source)

Mine is black, which must be a Walmart Black Friday special, because I can't find a picture of it online.

I finally talked my mom into buying me a Cricut for Christmas.  I was telling her about all the awesome things it does, and I knew she caved when she decided we should get my Grandma one for Christmas.  So I did a little investigating in the Black Friday sale flyers.  Walmart was selling it for $188, which included the Cricut Expression machine in black, red, blue, or green, along with two cartridges, and the 12"x12" cutting mat.  They were running the sale all day Friday, while supplies lasted. 
So I called up our local Walmart to make sure they were carrying it, since they cut the majority of our crafting department.  Then I called again when I realized it was an all day sale, instead of a 5am.-11am. sale.  I talked to the lady who answered the phone and very specifically asked if it was going to be on sale starting at midnight, since it said ALL day FRIDAY.  She said yes.
My mom and I drove there just after midnight, and found the Cricuts all wrapped up in shrink wrap in the middle of an aisle.  I asked one of the workers to please unwrap them so we could get what we wanted.  He gave me crap about it and said multiple times that it wouldn't be available until 5am.  I told him (maybe not so nicely) that I called and was told that it would be on sale at midnight.  Long story short, we had to argue with him, his manager, and then the cashiers at the register as well before we could get out of there.  But, my mom and I are good at that sort of thing, and let's just say, we got our way!
So I am now the proud owner of a Cricut Expression...that I cannot open until Christmas =[  I'm so antsy to get my hands on it and start working on some projects, and discover all of the wonderfulness that is that cute little bug.
I'll definitely be posting lots and lots of projects after Christmas once I start using it.  I already have all sorts of grand ideas in my head.

Do any of you have this yet??  If so, do you love it as much as I think I'm going to??