DIY Card Holder for Weddings and Graduations

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How adorable is this DIY card holder for graduations or weddings? Any box this size would work! You could cover with wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, fabric, and many other decorative touches. Who would have thought? The credit for this one goes to my brilliant mama who put it together for my sisters graduation some years back!

 

This card box was recycled from a box that was holding greeting cards. You can find these at many stores, but this one came from Costco I believe.  

If you aren't into making your own, here are some super cute creative ones for weddings & graduations that can be purchased from Amazon by clicking on the pictures below.

Graduations

   

Weddings

   

How to plan a Successful Wedding & Bridal Shower - Tips & Tricks

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There are so many steps in preparing and planning a bridal shower. I wanted to share with you the steps we took in planning a bridal shower. I did most of the planning for mine considering it was thrown at my parents house while I still lived at home and my sister who was the Maid of Honor, is younger than I and was very busy at the time. I hope these steps & tips will help you to plan a successful bridal shower. I will share the steps I took in planning, and share the games, cake & food ideas that shaped how mine went. All of the photos included in this lens were taken at my shower. Enjoy and please leave a comment at the bottom if you found any of this helpful :)

P.S. The amazing Barbie wedding cake was made by my amazing mama! She took some cake decorating classes at Michael's Craft Store and wanted to put them to use. It was possibly my favorite part of the shower :)

General tips for the shower

TIP #1: Make sure you have a helper for these things: Games (handing out magazines/pens/papers), Gift recorder (Keeping track of who got you what for thank you cards), and VERY important: A PICTURE TAKER!!! Also, I suggest doing the decorating the day before if possible, so you can deal with food/last minute chair and table set up the day of the shower. **MAKE SURE you have enough chairs and tables**

TIP #2: Make sure there is quiet background music for during the shower

TIP #3: Greet each of your guests as they arrive – I had the first 20-30 minutes after the “starting time” be for greeting, snacks, and drinks.

TIP #4: Do games back to back (Don’t let your guests sit around waiting for events)

TIP #5: Have the presents and cake follow games immediately (So that anyone not able to stay for the whole thing can enjoy all the main events before they have to bow out)

TIP #6: Do the heavy visiting at the end, so that guests can stay as long as they want (or get going if they have a busy schedule)

STEP 1: When & Where

Sit down with the bride to be and pick a good venue to have the shower, and discuss a date. Another very important part of planning is the time of day you pick.
If the shower is going to be outside, make sure you have a backup plan in case the weather is bad!

*Suggestion* I had mine about 2pm, because we were not going to be able to serve a full meal to guests. So I had snacks and figured most people would have already had lunch, and wouldn’t expect dinner either.

STEP 2: Invitations & Guest List

Sit down with the bride and go over the guest list & make sure you have addresses. Find some invitations that fit the bride’s style/theme if there is one. I didn’t have one, so I just picked something white and simple. I was on a very tight budget so I found mine at the dollar store and they worked out great! :)

DON’T FORGET: I had already sent out my wedding invites a week before, so I did not include registry information in the bridal shower invitations, but you may need to depending on the situation.

The information included in this invitation:
Bridal Shower
For:
Date:
Time:
Place:
Hosted by:
RSVP: (Give a couple different RSVP options: Facebook, Phone calls, Text, E-mail, etc.)

**Fun extra** I also made custom recipe cards in Microsoft word and printed them on blank 3×5 cards. I included 1 recipe card per person invited and made my own template for it. I will include it in a picture below

    

STEP 3: Games

Game 1 - What's in the bride's purse?

I made a list of 9 things I have in my purse (a few hard/random items) then filled in a bunch of items that people would think I had. This is my list, only 9 items were correct from the list. Whoever guessed the most correctly got a prize :)

Guess what is in the Bride’s purse!!
Read the following list of items and try to guess which ones the bride has in her purse.
There are a total of 9 items from this list in the bride’s purse. Have fun!

Keys
Bottle opener
Jewelry
Wisp Disposable toothbrush
Credit card
Chocolate/candy
Breath mints
Bible
Nail file
Notebook/Note Pad
Tylenol or Advil
Lighter
Lipstick
Umbrella
Playing Cards
USB/Thumb Drive
Sewing kit
Flashlight
Highlighter
Nail Clipper
Tweezers
Ear plugs
Band Aid
Mace/Pepper Spray
Brush
Kleenex
Nail Polish
Granola Bar
Socks
Spoon
Deodorant

Game 2 - Name Scramble (Word Maker)

Your task is to make as many words as you can using only the letters in the following phrase. You can only use a letter the number of times it appears in the phrase. For example, if there is only one B you can’t use more than one in each word. Have fun!!

Example:
“John & Jane Doe”

Words such as:
No
Do
Jan

Game 3 - Wedding/Marriage Advice

I cut out flowers from scrapbook paper and taped to Popsicle sticks. I added glass beads inside a bowl and placed the flower sticks inside.

Each person wrote advice on a flower (either wedding or marriage advice) and I kept them for scrapbooking. After they left it was fun to read all of the advice.

Don't forget prizes! 

 

STEP 4: Food & Drinks

Food

Think about the time of day your shower will be when considering what types and how much food to have. We did my shower after lunch, so we just had snacks/ finger food out for guests.

Snacks we had out at my shower:
Hummus
Crackers
Cheese
Chips & Salsa
Chips & 7 layer dip
Fruits
Veggies & Ranch dip
Pickled asparagus wraps

   

Drinks

Make sure to discuss drink options with the bride. Think about the variety of guests that will be attending and make sure everyone is going to be comfortable. Discuss the option of having alcoholic beverages or not having them.

We offered:
Water
Juice (A couple differnet kinds)
Soda (A couple differnet kinds)
Diet soda
Beer
Wine

Silverware

For my bridal shower, we found some really small fake rings, wrapped plastic silverware in an elegant napkin and put the ring around it to hold it all together.

Here’s a picture of the result. I love the way these looked, and lots of guests put the rings on during the shower for fun :)

Cake and/or Cupcakes...I had both!

I knew what kind of cake I wanted and my mom made it exactly how I pictured it would be. It was delicious and adorable! :) We did some cupcakes with ring toppers also because the cake was not big enough for the amount of guests who were attending the shower.

  

Cupcake Picks

STEP 5: Decorations

Make sure you add lots of details when decorating. I set out some pictures of my fiance and I at the entrance table, along with a wrapped shoe box with “Mr. & Mrs.” wrapping paper for recipe cards.

I hope you enjoyed this post, if you have any questions (or further tips) leave a comment below! 

Pick Your Plum Giveaway!!

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It's been quite a while since I have offered a giveaway on my page....so here we go! :) I have teamed up with Pick Your Plum to bring you this amazing (SURPRISE) $25 Pick Your Plum Mystery Box filled with Awesomeness. Yep, that's right...it's a surprise! All I can tell you is it's going to be amazing...

What might/could be in the box you ask? 

Products for: (Crafting, Fashion, Baking, Home Decor)

You can enter many ways using the entry form below.

You need to sign in using Facebook or Email, then complete the entries.

I will draw a winner on Wednesday the 14th, 2014.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Wedding Favor Boxes

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How adorable are these wedding favor boxes I made for our wedding? If you are into DIY wedding favors and DIY wedding decorations, you'll love these! 

You'd never guess I got them at the Dollar Store!! :) I then got lots of Hershey's Hugs (&Kisses) and put them inside each box. 

SO EASY! 

You can view some similar items on Amazon HERE

How to Take Professional Pictures at Home

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How adorable are these Easter pictures? This post will focus on photography tips for beginners. These pictures were taken by my friend. I thought she had them taken by a photographer but she informed me she had taken them in the comfort of her own home. That's when I decided it was a good idea to do a post on taking professional pictures at home! 

YES, the bunny is real :)

Camera used for these photos: Nikon D5100

Set up a background

Wrapping paper was used in these pictures as the backdrops/background. You could use a sheet or blanket depending on the amount of space the background needs to fill. 

 Lighting 

Make sure you are doing the photos in a room that has lots of natural light coming through. Natural light will make a huge difference (especially if you don't have any fancy equipment)

photography tips for beginners

Understand your Camera

There are so many different settings on cameras, and it is important that you know which work best in different types of settings. 
If you have a DSLR camera, learn to use the manual setting.

Photo Props

Depending on which type of photos you are doing, you can use some various props. These cute Easter props came from Target.

Editing

Editing is so important and so easy to do. My favorite editing tool to use is www.picmonkey.com. It is a great resource and it's FREE! All you have to do is upload a picture, edit it using the tools on the side and then save it to your computer. Did I mention it's FREE?! :)

Have fun!

Take some goofy pictures, do multiple outfits and really make the photographed people laugh and be themselves. Those will be the best photos, the ones that reflect their true personalities!

          

Hope you enjoyed this post! If you have more tips and tricks for at home photography, please feel free to comment and I can add them to this list.

Creative Wedding Photography Poses

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With wedding season around the corner, I thought I'd share some of the wedding poses I loved most from my own wedding photos (and others taken by our photographer). I have to give FULL credit to the amazing photographer and family friend from Karen Jackson Photography! 

View her Facebook Page and Website. You won't be disappointed. 

She did my Senior pictures and I didn't even have to think about it when we got engaged, I knew she would be our photographer. She is so creative and has such a great sense of humor. She really had us laughing all day! 

Couple Photos

Blurry on the background, focused on something up close. LOVE!

If you will be out when the sun goes down, get some sunset shots, gorgeous! 

Make sure you get a good close up for the Newspaper!

LOVE! This one is hanging in my hallway.

Look for murals or walls that have an interesting design or texture to them, these make for awesome backdrops! This was near a bar and there were garbage cans all around!

 RING SHOT!

 Photo from the wedding of a couple old friends :)

Photo from the wedding of a couple old friends :)

 This pose is one of my favorites!

Love the colors on this one!

This is one from another wedding our Photographer shot, looks like it's straight out of a magazine!!

Fireworks Wedding Photo

Love this one! 


Wedding Party Photos

Wedding Party Jumping 

 Groomsmen 

Matching Shoes 

 Maid of Honor Photo


Getting Ready/Individuals

Makeup Shot

 Getting Dressed 

Back of Dress

Ceremony Photos

Dad & Step Dad Ushering Bride down the Isle

ONE OF MY FAVORITES! Picture of the entire Church!

Here's another one our Photographer did at another wedding, gorgeous!


Reception Photos

Dancing time!

I love this one! The back of my dress was so pretty!

Our first dance!

Love this picture and tradition :)

More Dancing!

LOVE her dress! Our photographer is SO talented.

MISC.

Gorgeous way to view all accessories!

How GORGEOUS, from another wedding our Photographer did!

Dress picture!

Love this ring on the heel picture!

Gorgeous Wedding Dress!

Love this idea! Ring Photo

No caption necessary...GORGEOUS!

Check out this super cute candy bar, Love the Lens Effect here!

How hilarious! So in love with this ;)

Lime green accent shoes for wedding day, priceless! 

Do you have some favorite wedding pictures from your wedding that are pinterest worthy? If so, comment below and we can add them here! (with full credit to you & your photographer of course)