Tables.

After guests found their escort card telling them which table number they were sitting at they walked into the ballroom to find their table. On the table we had both the wooden plaque on an easel stand and a black frame with the same picture of us holding the plaque (except in a 4x6 frame) -- hopefully no one was confused!

Here are the frames:


Originally, they were all light wood (from Michaels, $1 each) and I spray painted them black. Then I covered them in mod podge and dipped (completely covering) them in black sparkles. After the sparkles kept falling off so I sprayed them with a sealant covering to keep the sparkles on.


This isn't the best angle of the sparkly frame (hopefully the professional pictures will capture it differently) but you get the idea? :)

Here's another one:


:)

79 days

I can't really believe that we're at 79 days.

Tomorrow, I'm going away for my annual scrapbook weekend and when I get back our invitations will be getting addressed, stamped and mailed out!

Oh, remember this fiasco? Well, my mom took back the stamps and the post office exchanged them for the newly priced wedding stamps. ;)

Last weekend, while in Maine we traveled around with our table numbers:


And I told you that I had something up my sleeve, didn't I??

Well, my idea for our escort cards involve us taking a picture holding up the table number for each guest.

So every guest/couple will have an envelope with their name(s) on them and when they open the envelope there will be our picture and whichever table number we're holding in the picture... is the table that person(s) is sitting at... get it? Maybe?

Okay, well... this was my inspiration. It's from the knot... but I saved it a long time ago and don't have the link...

See?

So... while I know it's important to be able to see the table number we're holding -- I really wanted to show off Maine in the pictures... because it's somewhere we go pretty often and also where we got engaged ;)

Which brings us to the pictures we took last weekend!

Here's a few... we took TONS! So I'm not sure which one's we'll use yet...



We took pictures with all the numbers... at various places ;) it was fun and I can't wait to get everything together!

That's a wrap...

...on our table numbers! ;)


We hit a couple bumps in the road along the way like not being able to have all the same size plaques (the larger ones give us splinters and probably need to be sanded...), and I ran out of certain paper and couldn't follow through with the pattern I started -- but all in all, these came out exactly how I thought/wanted/envisioned. Yay!

Table top stands

I'm making some progress on my table numbers.


I said some... so what if I'm a procrastinator? I have 3 days until I need them finished. Again -- you'll see why I need them done so quickly even though we're still (I say that very lightly) 88 days away.

I was asked how I will keep these fancy things standing up on my tables by the lovely Laura over at Saying "I do" and while I haven't actually purchased anything... this is my plan. ;)

See these:

They're actually plate stands but I thought they'd be perfect for something like this because they won't take away from the table number (cause you'll barely see them) and if they're meant to hold up plates they must be sturdy enough to hold up a "lightweight" wooden plaque! ;) hopefully...

I've also considered these small easels:


They have similar ones at Michaels (wooden ones, plastic ones, colorful ones). The only thing I've found with these is that they have to be the exact right size or they don't hold the plaque up -- they just topple right over. But they're inexpensive and can always be spray painted (which is probably my new favorite thing... and definitely the best way to "paint") if I decide on a different color.

But that's my plan... and I hope it works out!

DIY table numbers

I ventured into DIY land today and made the first of our table numbers. I wasn't positive if I would love these, so I decided to only buy the materials to make one plaque. I chose table 15.

First I made sure to have everything for the project:


I really wanted to back the numbers on a piece of paper to give the surface a little bit of texture... so to make sure the paper had the same oval shape as the plaque I used my finger to crease the paper:


I only wanted the paper on the flat surface of the plaque, not the edges because then I thought the plaque would lose some appeal:


I cut out the oval (luckily I have a steady hand!):



After I cut out the oval I made sure it fit nicely on the piece of wood I had. Turns out the oval wasn't exactly perfect so the paper had to be placed a certain way in order to fit perfectly:


I placed the numbers on just to see:


And then I had to move this project outside. It may not have been the best day to do this since it was freezing and we're in a wind advisory (not really good when you're working with spray paint!):


I chose silver for the numbers because I thought it would stick out against the pink background:


I waited for everything to dry (it didn't take long) and then used scrapbooking tape to stick the paper to the plaque... and Elmer's wood glue to stick the numbers to the paper. I eyeballed the placement of the numbers. I think they look pretty good, if the glue hadn't dried so quickly I would have placed the 5 a little higher:


I was pretty excited with how it turned out. We spent the rest of the day traveling to different Michaels in the area (and not so much in the area) to find the correct size and shape of the wooden plaques. We still need 7 more so it looks like that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.

I'll also be buying different pink papers for each plaque... I want them to be different but with a similar color scheme (pink!).

They were so easy to make... but I wouldn't say it's necessarily a cheap project.

Of course, I could have gotten cheaper materials... but with our time crunch (they need to be done by next Friday for something I'll share later) there wasn't really any time to search around.

Luckily with coupons I barely paid full price for any of the plaques (regularly $4.99). And if I had waited until tomorrow to buy all the table numbers (which I bought today) I could have saved a great deal on those (with a coupon)... but I was too impatient and really wanted them spray painted today.

I hope to buy more plaques tomorrow so I can get the rest of them finished and then I can move on to our love banner. =)

I missed the plaque a few times and got my fingers instead! Thankfully after lots of washing my hand is back to normal: