directional guidance

July 24, 2013July 24, 2013 | circadee

It has been a crazy busy summer already. We’ve barely come up for air. Honestly, a small cry from how we planned to spend our summer. But someone once told me life is what happens when you make plans. So true. Less planning, more living.

So when we do get a minute to breath, we relish in reviewing our wedding photos over and over again. We notice something new every time and relive that perfect day when just about all of our friends and family were in the same place, just a few months ago. Which, by the way, doesn’t help us select photos to frame and to put in an album nor determine which should end up on the cutting room floor, as they say.

Speaking of, there are so many hysterical dance floor photos that I am considering posting an outtake reel here…although I may be disowned by a few people. (If you beg me, I will totally post it though.) Signature dance moves, silly faces and all.

N-E-way, where did we leave off in the wedding DIY deets? We talked about the cake and the must have cake table.

We talked about the DIY trailhead highlighting where all of our friends and family traveled from.

I think that transitions nicely into the map thang we had going on…

I racked my brain over what to do with the table settings. We knew right away that we would have food stations for dinner. This created a party atmosphere (which isn’t hard to do with our group) as opposed to a formal sit down dinner where people felt like they couldn’t get up and mingle as they please. There is nothing wrong with that setting but it just wasn’t what we were going for.

With all of that said, I didn’t want the tables to be bare either since the food would be served at the stations.

Enter 160 atlas pages to the scene, my friends. I found old and new ones. The blue, green and yellow colors coordinated perfectly with our springy palette. Each page served as a charger or place mat. Also, a subtle nod to the “On the Way to Cape May” theme. With a splash of burlap for good measure. Oh and here’s a secret for you if this look is up your alley: Take your atlases to FedEx/Kinko’s to have the pages cut in bulk. It will save you hours upon hours of time tearing and cutting pages.

Bonus, everyone was encouraged to scribble notes to us on their map. This ended up being totally entertaining for guests as they waited for dinner and an icebreaker at a few tables.

Plus, we jumped on the instagram trend and incorporated our own wedding hashtag (#recanize) and encouraged guests to share their candids. It is a blast to relive them every time and we plan to make a little album of candids with maps as the scrapbook pages. One of these days.

For brides-to-be out there, we placed note cards at each table communicating the hashtag info to guests…

Go ahead, take a look at the hashtag on instagram. You know you want to.

And one more map for the road….ha, get it? Road? Ok. Our guest book was a guest map which we framed. People signed all over the country and of course Cape May had a little heart on it. I found this on etsy.

I have to admit that I restrained myself from being an etsy bride. I only ordered this map, which was made locally, and Wilson’s seersucker bowtie and leash which is just priceless as far as I’m concerned.

Next up…the centerpieces. And why I might have been temporarily insane for doing them all myself just days before my wedding. What was I thinking? Come back on Friday to find out!

All professional photos shot by the talented folks at Love Shack Photo.

a DIY trailhead

July 10, 2013February 11, 2014 | circadee

Ryan and I will be celebrating a big ol’ 2 months of marriage tomorrow. In honor, I’m sharing a wedding DIY.

Remember our big tent?

We popped up a party under that thing just like we pop up a shop under our 10×10 at various markets. Except this was like 100×100 or something cray-zay big.

For someone like me, it was a dream to be able to build my reception setting from the ground up. In the beginning, I insisted on not having a narrow theme as I thought it was too kitschy. Our theme sort of evolved as we continued to plan details. So did the color scheme. I will give you one guess.

Yeah, aqua blue.

And the theme was a little more subtle with a nod to “On the way to Cape May, I fell in love with you”. How could we not, seriously?

Once there was an established theme we conjured some fun details to deck the bare corners of the tent and tables. With our guests in mind, we put together a trailhead highlighting all of the cities they had traveled from to be with us on our big day. It was essentially a destination wedding since about 3 people invited (and, ahem, not invited. I haven’t told you about our wedding crasher yet, have I?) actually live at the shore.

The trailhead was also a subtle nod to Ryan’s love of hiking.

I’ve seen a number of versions of wedding trailheads on pinterest pointing to the direction of the cake, dancing, drinks, etc. but never one quite like this. We were pretty excited about our concept. Feel free to pin it!

We started with an old coat rack since we wanted something that was freestanding and didn’t need to be staked into the ground or anything. I don’t have a true before pic but it was a wooden coat rack with 4 brass hooks. One was totally busted so it was super cheap. I saved the 3 good hooks for a future project. The base of the coat rack got a wash of milk paint in Ironstone.

Here’s a roll of fencing that I’ve been hoarding.

I bought this at a yard sale a couple of years ago. I share that because I don’t want you to think I stole it off of a sand dune that is now blowing away without the fence allowing the ocean to recede onto the road flooding everything in sight. No. Someone else probably did that and then I paid for it. Or maybe it is actually just guilt-free garden fencing.

Anyway, I pulled each picket out after making a list of how far our guests’ home towns were in miles from Cape May. With nothing more than a sharpee marker, I printed the city and miles shifting the orientation of the trail point somewhat haphazardly. No one said it had to be exact. We left the fencing color as-is since it gave some character to our trailhead and matched the Ironstone base pretty well.

Enter Ryan. The man with the power tools who assembled the project.

In the making, we had a bit of a duh moment. We were destined to have white screws so they’d sort of blend in. After searching the hardware store high and low for the right screws we turned to spray paint. Duh. I paint everything else, how did I not think of that off that bat? It took 2 seconds to pop the screws into a discarded box and lightly spray the heads. Let that be a lesson to you my friends. Spray your screws any darn color your choose because they pretty much only come in silver, black and brass.

And of course, we couldn’t forget Cape May 0 miles, known locally as Exit Zero. And known to us as Happily Ever After. I’m so cheesy…

This was a lot of words for a 1-2-3 project. But I’m chatty today. I hope you like our version of the wedding trailhead. By the way, don’t our friends and family live in some great cities?

DIYing a trailhead

All wedding photographs were shot professionally by Love Shack Photo. All DIY photographs were DIY’d by me.

guest post: a shower fit for a bridesmaid

March 27, 2013March 27, 2013 | circadee

I’ve got a little treat for you today. Something different anyway. Last week I posted about my bridal shower, specifically the handmade gifts and details that went into it. Well, today my MOH is here to rehash the behind the scenes DIY details that went into the event. Take it away Leigh…

As you may know from Dana’s blogging history, she’s been to a lot of weddings. Beyond just being your standard wedding guest, Dana takes what makes Circa Dee amazing and translates those talents into the fabulous, thoughtful events for her friends and family. A 10-time bridesmaid, 3-time reader, toast-giver, bachelorette party-planner, bouquet mastermind, you name it – she’s done it. So imagine the pressure when Dana asks you to be her Maid of Honor, which means planning an event for her!I jest. (A little.)In all seriousness, helping to plan Dana’s shower meant putting some of her favorite things, ideas, and people into one room. Here are a few aspects of the shower to highlight how we did that.The Theme – As a nod to Dana’s role in so many weddings, we went loosely with a 27 Dresses theme. We incorporated dress and bridesmaid details throughout the day.

The Invitation – Designed by the lovely Poppies and Petals, we crafted a newspaper-inspired invite. Here, we asked that ladies wear a bridesmaid dress. (While I didn’t remember discussing this much in the past, Dana admitted that she checked her closet the morning of the shower to see if her bridesmaid dresses were still there! Without borrowing any of Dana’s dresses, we still had about a dozen ladies join in the fun of dressing up.)

The Centerpieces – I fully admit to stalking Pinterest for this idea, but adding our own flare. We took a page from Dana’s vintage, rustic style, and used mini galvanized buckets as our base. We then added floral foam, some moss, and a few rocks to weight down the piece. Then, we added everyday kitchen skewers (hello, re-purposing!), stuck into the floral foam. Between the skewers, we strung a piece of yarn and a few mini-bunting flags. (We even borrowed Dana’s punch for this step, under the guise of Poppies and Petals custom card order.) We chose paper in sea-glass and vintage inspired tones, with a hint of pink because, come on, this is a bridal shower! Then, my favorite part, we found a template for mini dresses and cut them out on the Big Shot. Some twine was strung around the waist of the dresses for some extra detail and attached with a too-cute-for-words mini clothespin. I really love how quickly this project came together!

Decorations – The room at the restaurant where we hosted the event didn’t need much adorning, but we added balloons in sea-glass colors. I also stalked Dana’s Facebook, blog, and emailed ladies who had included Dana in their wedding to find pictures. I had a blast reliving all these amazing events, and Dana’s various haircuts over the years. Some photos for framed, and others were displayed out on tables. We also asked our guests to leave a wish for Dana and Ryan. These notecards and pens were displayed in a vintage planter I found at a local vintage shop. I’m hoping to turn these photos and notes into a little book for Dana at some point.

The Favors – Dana already showcase the Ball Jar cookies, which she’d been dreaming of having. We also gave away little tokens to the ladies that wore bridesmaid dresses, of even-more-mini galvanized buckets, filled with candy, and adorned with another little dress.

The Food – No shower is complete without a great spread. Dana’s mom selected a variety of Italian dishes that included Dana’s favorite – Caprese Salad! While Dana unwrapped her mountain of gifts, we enjoyed homemade cookies baked by family and friends. Then, at the end of the party,we enjoyed not one but two cakes – one Tiramisu flavored and one from Alice Bakery (two more things Dana loves!)

Thanks for taking time to read about how to put on a party for Dana! I think we met this immense challenge in style and made a great day happen for our beautiful bride!

Thanks Leigh! I have to admit that it felt totally bizarre showing up to a shower empty handed. And you should also know that it took everything in me not to bring my camera and snap pictures or instagram the whole event. After years of bridesmaiding (yes it is a verb), it was a blast to be on the other side! I just wanted to live in the moment without social media…shocking. And I bet you didn’t know that my blogging originally began in the wedding world, did ya?