Guest Post: My Mother & a GIVEAWAY!

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful husband!!

Cake made by Kerry for his birthday last year

Today's post is brought to you by my mother. Her last guest post about her troubles finding a mother-of-the-bride dress was wildly popular, and she's back now to talk about making the bags for my bridesmaids gifts! Take it away mom!

Sewing is as much about creativity as it is an expression of love for me. While sewing I am concentrating meditatively on my creation while at the same time reminiscing about the person I am sewing for. So when Laura asked me to make tote bags for the bridal party it was a labor of love. Most of these girls I have known since they were toddlers and teens and therefore, there are many memories stitched into those bags.

The actual process was an adventure. First, we needed to decide the style of the bags which led to a two hour drawing and coloring session with Laura.

Next we went to Joanne Fabrics and Crafts to "audition" fabrics for the totes. That was at least another two hours of comparing and contrasting color and pattern choices. We finally settled on three fabrics; a solid green, a striped green, beige, and brown, and a paisley brown and green (My favorite). Once all of that was figured out it was time to begin construction.

I decided the easiest thing to do was to make a patterns of each section of the tote out of interfacing. Then I would place the pattern on the fabric, place my rotary square on top of it carefully lining up the edges and squaring the corners. Then I’d swipe the edges of the rotary ruler with my rotary cutter making straight, clean cuts like magic (the rotary cutter is the best invention in the world!).

I used an iron on interfacing on the lining of each bag. I ironed the interfacing onto the lining of my first bag and the heat from the iron damaged the fabric! UGGHHH! But this is sometimes my favorite part of sewing. My favorite saying in sewing is “There are no mistakes only opportunities to embellish.” So rather than waste the fabric I salvaged most of it and turned it into an outside pocket for the bag. Once I got that first tote done I took a picture of it on my phone and sent it to "The Boss" for approval.

She liked it and I was on a roll from that point on. Making seven identical totes would have been too boring for me so while each bag is similar in design they are also individualized for each girl.

(Here's mom with all the bags ready to go!)

While making these bags I came across a tutorial on Noodlehead for a lined make up bag and decided that would be fun for each girl at the Bridal Shower as a little teaser to the bigger bags they would eventually be getting.

That meant another seven bags (plus one for a give away on Laura’s blog) and then I also decided to make one for each of my sister’s three daughters. I am really addicted to these bags!  They go together pretty quickly and easily and they make a really nice gift.

Now on to my favorite giveaway I've done so far!! My mom has made one extra Bag for one Saying "I Do" Reader!! (Thanks Mom!)

To Enter:
1. Leave me a comment below why you would like this bag AND/OR leaving a comment trying to convince my mom to open her own Etsy Shop and sell these bags! (I mean come on, RIGHT?!)

Extra Entries: 
2. Follow my blog, and leave me a comment saying you do.
3. Follow me on twitter @Lwoodsny and leave me a comment saying you do.
4. Tweet about this giveaway mentioning @Lwoodsny in your tweet, and leave me a comment saying so.

Contest will end next Wednesday, August 31, 2011 at 12:00 MIDNIGHT, and the winner will be announced on Friday, September 2nd! Good Luck!

Wedding Recap: Bridesmaid Gifts

Here's all the things that went into the Bridesmaid's Gifts:
Initial necklaces from Eria Designs on Etsy:

A bottle of Trader Joe's wine wrapped in a handmade wine bag and tied with white tulle (My mom made these!):

A Green hoodie from old navy for pictures (all of which are now missssing, arrrrrrg!):

The Flip Flops that my mom and I made:

And finally the crème de la crème of the gifts! All of this stuff was put into these amazing hand-made tote bags that my own mother spent HOURS/days/weeks working on leading up to the wedding:

I couldn't wait to hand these out to my bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner!!

 Here's Mal with hers:

 Cassie enjoying her new bag:

 Molly models her bag

 Smith is SUPER excited to be getting hers!

 Mandy: cute as always!

And Sister striking a pose with hers!

I love my mom's face here, she's so happy and proud of her bags, and she should be:

And guess what?? Mom made an extra bag for one "Saying 'I Do'" Reader!! How cool is she? Check back here tomorrow for a guest post from my mom as well as an amazing homemade bag giveaway!

Wedding Recap: Groomsmen Gifts

Before I get to our rehearsal dinner, I want to let you know what we got our bridal party as far as gifts since we ended up handing them out that night.

For the Men: We got them these etched beer mugs and a bottle of their favorite alcohol to go with it. I ordered these personalized beer mugs which each groomsman's name on it from Discountmugs.com.

discountmugs.com

They actually shipped me two "Matthew" glasses instead of two "Christopher" glasses. Seeing as we received this order a mere three days before the wedding, we were very lucky that the only person who was affected by this error was the groom himself, and he didn't need to be gifted his beer glass right away. I sent a complaint to the company and they immediately corrected the problem and said I can keep the extra "Matthew" glass, and they'll send me a new glass that reads "Christopher".

Well, one week later, I received a shipment of SEVEN beer glasses that read "Christopher". Unfortunately, 4 of them were broken in the shipment..so now we have three "Christopher" mugs and one "Matthew"! haha, oh well, they certainly fixed the issue, and by the time I got the replacement order I didn't really care that half of them were broken. They were easy to deal with, but I wouldn't say this is a top of the line company, they didn't even bubble wrap the glasses in the shipment!

We placed the glasses in these gold gift bags from Michaels and wrote their names on each one:

 

Here's Chris handing out his gifts, and clearly excited by this:

 

 Matt is very eager for his beer glass and gin:

  Next up is Chris:

Then Michael gets his glass and his patrón:

 

 Billy seems happy with his gift!

 James seems pretty satisfied as well!

 And last but not least, Chris' Best Man, and Brother, Michael:

Tomorrow: You'll hear what we got the Bridesmaids!

Friday Find: Who needs a Best Man?

Congratulations to K at Down at Fraggle Rock for winning my Mixbook.com Giveaway! 

K won a free 20-page photobook from mixbook.com! Really I wanted everyone to win this, but I'm very happy that K was chosen because she's had such a difficult time this week trying to find a new wedding venue last minute after her original place wasn't working out for her. She's been under so much stress and I really hope that this can somewhat brighten her day! K, email me at info@lauraandchristopher.com so I can set you up. 

If you didn't win, but still want to create a photobook through mixbook.com, be sure to use the code SAYIDO20 at checkout for 20% of your order. I will have other great deals coming up from them in the future and hopefully some more giveaways so stay tuned for that! Trust me, once you try it and get the hang of their service, you'll be hooked!


Friday Find: Is your fiancé bummed because he doesn't have anyone to choose as his best man? Or perhaps he can't decide on a best man and doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings? Well, now your fiancé doesn't have to spend countless nights wondering who will hand him the ring on his wedding day, thanks to: The Lady Killer (I don't understand this name whatsoever, but that's what they call it). This robotic arm (which is actually also a full fledged jewelry box) will hand your groom the rings with ease and grace. Great for proposals too...just watch!

I'm off to Kerry's Bachelorette party this weekend and I could not be MORE EXCITED!! I'll let you know how it all goes next week!

Wedding Recap: Parent and Reader Gifts

Before I get to the rehearsal dinner, I want to outline the gifts we got for everyone. For our parents, I had a really tough time coming up with something to give them. How do I possibly thank them enough for all they have done for us? Everything I came up with was either tacky, or just not right. So we decided to wait and get them something nice in Italy. Who doesn't love a gift from another country?! I didn't want to show up empty handed to the rehearsal dinner, so I wrote out this poem for them:

We tried and tried to think of the perfect gift for you
But after all you've done for us-not just any old gift will simply do
So we must go to Italy to find a gift that's just right to say
 "thank you" for all you've done in making our wedding the perfect day
So know that a gift of thanks is on its way
from your new daughter and son (daughter and new son)
We love you and can't thank you enough for all that you have done.

I printed these on creamy card-stock and backed them on either a green or black card-stock, then added them to nice envelopes. These pics came out really blurry!

For our readers, we got Ben a Ralph Lauren Blue Bathrobe. Here's Ben modeling it...just kidding ;)

I didn't want to take the robe out of the sealed packaging, and I SWEAR somebody has a picture of Ben modeling this at our rehearsal dinner, but I can't seem to find that picture anywhere. So I wrapped the robe up with some hot tamales and Good and Plenty's for him since those are some of his favorite candies.

For Kerry, I found this adorable leaf with green stone necklace. I found this on Etsy...I think this necklace spoke to me A) because it was green, B) because of the leaf, and perhaps I was thinking of Kerry's upcoming Fall wedding more-so than my own, but I just really liked it! I found this on Alexandra Cabalerro's Etsy page.

Both readers also got a bottle of wine in wedding fabric wine bag and Kerry got a bag just like my bridesmaids which I will be sharing with you on Monday along with another fabulous giveaway!!

Wedding Recap: The Rehearsal

Today is the LAST DAY to enter my Mixbook Digital Photobook givewaway. Please be sure to leave me a comment here! Enter by midnight tonight and you could win! The winner will be announced on Friday.

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Finally onto our rehearsal!! The day before our wedding on May 20th, we had the rehearsal at our church. I want to give a special thanks to Kyle for taking all these pictures during the rehearsal!

As I already wrote, me and the ladies had some nice afternoon Mani/pedis with a side of Champagne near my house. Afterward, we went back to my place and had just enough time to quickly change and head over to the church for our 7:00pm rehearsal. We were greeted by all our closest friends and their significant others at the church.

We first talked with Father Dulaney and walked through a bit of the ceremony.

Surveying the scene with Sister

After we went over some things, it was time to start our full on rehearsal and I lined up our bridal party. Remember the tissue paper flowers I made in this post? Well, I did take what many of you suggested and made little bouquets for my bridesmaids to carry down the aisle for the rehearsal.

Matt and Molly

Chris and Cassie

Mike and Mal

Billy and Mandy (yea..Billy's a jokester!)

James and Smith

MOH Melissa!

I love this picture of all the girls holding their tissue paper flower bouquets. I used these again the next day for decor at the house.

Here's me with my awesome tissue paper bouquet that bridesmaid Cassie made for me at my Bridal Shower

Then it was my turn to walk down the aisle with both Dad AND Mom!

We listened to the readers to their thang:

Kerry reading

Ben Reading

The boys were very serious:

I love this picture: Me looking wistfully into the church, Chris looking at me, and his brother smugly looking at us in the background.

The rehearsal continues...do you? do you? Then this, then that...yadda yadda...something funny happened here...

Our parents watching from their seats in the church

I think I look overwhelmed and worried in all of these pictures!

And we're done!

Kiss Kiss!

After the rehearsal we hung around for a bit all catching up, talking to Father Dulaney and making sure everything was set before we headed off to our rehearsal dinner!!

Mandy and Billy

With Benjamin

Mark, Cassie, Molly and Mandy

Matt and Lauren

Walking into the church after scoping out some picture locations

Mingling, mingling

My father-in-law talking to the priest - turns out, they
actually grew up in the same neighborhood and know a lot of the same people!

Next up: Rehearsal Dinner and wedding party gifts!!