Photo by James Wojcik

After seeing this blurb about using an eggshell as a seedling plant in Real Simple’s New Uses For Old Things. I’ve started carefully cracking my eggs (towards the top) and saving all the shells to make a hopefully cute and pretty centerpiece for Easter.

I’m not sure if I posted any of my copious garden photos last year but in the three years we’ve had our house with it’s little garden patch I’ve made, I’ve found I really like gardening! Specifically vegetable gardening because I feel like it’s very rewarding to eat something you grow. SO, what I’m getting at, is that this is a win-win centerpiece because I get to start my garden even earlier! I guess if you were a really nice person you could give away the little seedlings to your guests but my guests are all traveling an hour or more to get here so I can hoard all my seedlings guilt-free.

The windows in my living room (as seen in the bar set up photo from St. Patrick’s Day) are like having a little greenhouse so I’ve always been lucky with my seedlings but a good friend of Michael’s is quite the accomplished gardener and swears by the Veggie Tales seeds. As silly as it may seem, I’m sure seeds marketing to children are going to have the best shot being fool-proof!

I’m currently unsure whether those cardboard like egg shell cartons (as opposed to the new clear plastic ones) is going to be the best way to showcase or if I should get some moss or something from a craft store and do it up is better but we’ll see when we get closer!

Good luck to anyone else taking this on and let me know how your centerpieces come out!

Anyway today I want to chat about what I see as the two paper sides to weddings. I break it down between everything that could possibly come before the wedding and day of wedding stuff. So in the former we have save the dates, invitations, RSVPs, accommodation cards, direction cards, etc. Then on the other side for day of the wedding stuff we have programs, table numbers, menus, labels for favors, and on and on. If you look back in TFMD classic designs like Jim + Pam or Holly + Paul I was trying to make the entire arc at once.

The problem is when you are ordering invitations you obviously can’t know where you’re seating everyone yet so you can’t order both at once. The second problems to that (I have found) is that by the time day of wedding paper enters your realm of thinking you are short on budget and time so things just get thrown together or skipped entirely. Can we PUH-LEASE make a resolution from here on out to never ever ever ever EVAH have clip art on table numbers? Because we don’t have to. My solution to this is to come at this semiDIY. The way I keep the price down is simple- I can sell you the file (ready to go in your hot little hands on the same day) and you print it and trim them down yourself. We meet in the middle of the DIY road. Whether you’ve bought your wedding invites from here or not we can get you hooked up with some great day of wedding pieces. If you bought TFMD invitations for Melanie + Jake and need a program no worries- there actually already is one! And if there wasn’t I can make one! Table numbers, programs, menus, labels for favors, and other various signs you might need (to lead guests a certain way or to tell them how to fill out your guest book) are $25 for the file*. Place cards start at $50 for the file* because it takes long to add each of your 100 or so guests names in!

So let’s not forget about the day of wedding stuff. There’s no reason it can’t coordinate with the rest of your wedding look. I can’t find where the free faux bois table numbers are in the archives so why don’t we post it again since we’re talking about table number, huh? (Colors available [from left to right, top to bottom]: gray, marigold, cherry, moss, skyblue, stained, and raw)

Also remember remember remember:

BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH
I will be suspending production of orders from March 15-March 29! You can email me to place an order during this time but I won’t be able to get back to you or print your order until after March 29th.

Buuut since I do love to bribe you all AND since I’ve had a request I’m making another free Alice in Wonderland party invitation so stay tuned.

*I’m not trying to be tricky but these are the starting costs. If you say “I love the Jim + Pam menu”, (I know- it’s so cute- I love that it’s “eat drink and be married” in a more modern way, but I digress), it’s $25. If you say “I love the Holly + Paul table numbers but I want to add photos and short stories to each location mentioned in the table number and by the way we have 40 tables” (which is a good idea, it’s kind of what I made for Jen E.’s wedding, everyone had fun looking at all the photos) then that will be $50.

The other day I was trolling the web for who can remember what and I came across this very fun solution for wedding seating:

After some tracking it back through various blogs who’ve posted it I found it on Parcel Post who credited to Unscene (which seems like a West Coast event planner but their full site isn’t up so I can only guess).

There are so many bridal blogs out there (which can get kind of incestuous– one idea posted several times) so I set out to find some MORE new blogs with MORE cool things I hadn’t seen before. Now, some of these (like Parcel Post) I’m sure get more readership than I and several I’ve found seem to have Bridal Blog awards that I’ve never heard of so SOMEONE (lots of someones) are reading them– I’ve just never heard of them so maybe you haven’t either.

After some clicking about I came across this friggin’ awesome DIY post from Bridal Buzz about making new mason jars look vingage.
.

This would go so well with the look of Meredith and Patrick’s wedding (and therefore the Melanie + Jake [Sweet Home Alabama], Bonnie + Clyde [famous law breakers] and Lady and the Tramp ( invites)

Next we have what I think of as “fondant + simplicity = get in my belly now!” from Eat Cake Be Merry.

I think this would work perfectly with a Sloane + Ferris invitation (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Very fun and modern yet not overly so.

The one on the left is a good understated option for Allie + Noah (The Notebook) and with that big ole bow and bling I’m all for the right cake for Holly + Paul (Breakfast at Tiffany’s).

And lastly a teepee wedding (?!!?- I know) from the crazy amazing Rosie Parsons in the UK. If I haven’t said it before great photographers get the best clients who have the most creative weddings that you can get A MILLION IDEAS FROM so go check her out!

So there you have it- hopefully some things you haven’t seen before. If you’re still looking for more here are some things to get you started:

Blogs.com- 10 Stylish Wedding Blogs

Brenda’s Wedding Blog

Junebug Weddings

Rock N Roll Bride (check out the vintage-inspired 1920′s Galmour Puss shots here)

Sugarcomb Event Design

Diary of a Las Vegas Wedding Concierge

Matthew Robbins (or possibly once was called “Artfool“)

Amber Events

Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here! I keep adding more “Alice in Wonderland” stuff since people seems to like it so make sure to click on the “Alice in Wonderland” tag to make sure you get it all! (Like another print out invitation!)

Happy November everyone! As promised starting off today we have some awesome DIY party planning bits. My friend Mandy and I planned an elaborate Alice in Wonderland themed 30th birthday party for our friend, Jenn, a couple of weeks ago in NY and it was so fun and adaptable to other parties (bachelorette, baby shower, wedding shower, birthdays of all ages, etc) that I thought I’d share.

We started off our party with a Mad Hatter Tea (and Champagne) party at her house with some fun (relatively) easy decorations.

The photos aren’t the best quality. I took them with the flash off b/c the flash was blinding but the pom poms were in front of the lights so there were weird color things going on. Brandy helped a bit so now they look a little retro but anyway- long story short here they are:

Alice in Wonderland Party Decorations

Anyway don’t think I’m just rambling on without giving you all the tools to do this yourself!

Here are the “Eat Me”/”Drink Me” straws and toothpicks: download.
[Print out on desired paper, cut into strips and fold around straws or toothpicks, glue shut and trim a "v" shape into ends]

Here is the “Happy 30th Birthday” garland: download.
[The colors are named on top but you can choose any 3 colors you like. I alternated red, white, pink, white which is why it looks like it's not in order. If you would like different text, Martha has you covered.]

Again the Pom-Pom instructions are here.

And lastly, I found the email I sent to Mandy after some Alice in Wonderland research:

Here are other links that I’ve amassed although most of them just have touches of things i like
http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-decor-alice-in-wonderland
(obviously this is a little too complex for what we can do but i like the kind of mismatched craziness of it all)

http://www.projectwedding.com/wiki/show/diy-weddings-cherry-harvest-table
(i like the flags for the “eat me” and “drink me”)

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/10/real-parties-chic-colorful-birthday/#more-8072
(i like the flags and the bright colors. it seems a little too pretty though for alice in wonderland)

http://www.hostessblog.com/2009/09/free-printables-cirque-du-bebe-pink/
(I like the concept of the feathers- maybe not the execution. I can see what Michael’s Craft store has to offer)

http://www.marthastewart.com/good-things/party-hats
(probably more work than I’m willing to do but i’m throw it all out there)

http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2009/08/tea-party-shower.html
(the more i see it the more i think lots of big things hanging from the ceiling are a good easy thing)

http://jordanferney.blogspot.com/2008/04/party-hats-101.html
(more hats and ceiling hanging stuff)

Other Alice in Wonderland elements:
cards/suits (queen of hearts, jack of spades, etc)
flamingos
cheshire cat
tweedledee and tweedledum
white rabbit
dodos
mushrooms (fake ones for decorations?)
jaberwoky
doormouse

If you fall down the rabbit hole for your next party make sure and send us some photos! Oh, and remember to use the flash unless your a super cool photographer (apparently I was acting out of my pay grade!)

Edited to add: check out the new Alice in Wonderland invitations for free here!

Here’s what Martha says about it:

60 Outdoor Party Ideas

Bottle Beauty Hurricane

Bars and buffet tables must be adequately lighted, but they’re often located far from electrical outlets. An easy, inexpensive solution is to gather clear apothecary bottles and fill them with lamp oil and wicks. Arrange the bottles under a large hurricane for protection. We set these on a sturdy glass cake stand.

Yes, please! Of course, I’m suspicious, though. Do you have clear apothecary bottles in your house? No, I didn’t think so. But quick google search took me to ebottles and SKS and faster than Emeril can say BAM!– BAM! tons of glass bottles. Same went for the lamp oil and wicks. Now, the search for giant hurricane (I’m assuming they meant hurricane “lamp” or “lantern”) didn’t prove as easy because that glass pieces is HUGE! I mean check out how many bottles they fit in there. BUT don’t fear, several years ago my mom had foot surgery around that holiday which meant that when she needed something I had to go track it down. I was sent out of roughly 12 billion search for a mystical kind of dish called a “trifle bowl” and I believe that will do just nicely in this situation. In fact, Martha sells one at Kmart for $10. Here’s a photo so you know what you’re in for:

And then when you’re done you can make tons of tasty desserts. Or if you’re worried that people will set themselves on fire not having such high sides, there’s a cool lantern on sale at Pottery Barn that you can put your bottles in.

So it’s official. This is totally possible.

In other news: I thought of couple to use for the second of the custom invites but it requires some changes to make it work so it won’t be showing its pretty face just yet.

My website for my corporate design workis done. Or hopefully will be by the time you click that link. If you know of anyone in need of some contract graphic design work, you know who to point them to (me!)

And lastly, it’s my husband’s birthday next week so he’s taken the week off and we’re heading off the grid so in the meantime… here’s a funny video,a trip down memory lane, some lovely photos, awesome trinkets, and lastly, coffee cup drawings.