string lights

so when i was in thailand i bought 300 of these string light covers to be used in our wedding.  they were cheap!  they were about $40 for 300 i think.  we asked them to give it to us without the lights themselves because the thai and us voltages are different.  we also got them collapsed. 

i spent about a day, opening them up.  i found that because thailand is so much more humid, some of the balls were starting to become brittle, dry, and showing their glue.  i dont mind so much because i dont think people will be looking at them closely.

the light bulb also didnt slide securely in so i had to make a couple extra snips with my scissors to the hole.

table guestbooks

so for our main signin we have the thumbprint picture. so we dont really have a guestbook.  this was kind of a spontaneious project.  i took some nice writing paper folded them in half.  then i took some thin card stock and used washi tape to make a sort of binding. i then rounded all corners with a punch.  next i used my sewing machine and essentially bound all the books together.  just used a straight stitch and sewed straight through.

next i used the letter rubber stamps and put questions on the cover such as:
how did you meet claudia and stephen
describe claudia and stephen
draw claudia and stephen
your favorite memory of claudia and stephen
your funniest memory or claudia and stephen
kids names

pashminas

so we bought the pashminas in hong kong because they were the cheapest there.  we got them for about $3-$4 each which is pretty good.  i also tied these with raffia.  again that were too short.  then i used cricut to cut different leaves and stamped them with keep warm.  i tied the leaves on with divine twine.

handkerchief programs

so im finally done with the handerkerchief programs that i set out to do.  i originally started out with another design but it got vetoed by multiple people.  i ended up with the marimekko unikko design for the border and then just names of everyone in the bridal party etc for the text.  our ceremony will be simple and nondenominational so a program wouldve been overkill anyway.  i had them printed at spoonflower and was really happy with the results.  i had ordered a swatch of the older design i did but not of the new one.  they contacted me to make sure i didnt need a swatch of the new design. then when i put the order in, someone had reviewed it and cancelled it for me because i had it at the wrong dpi.  it took me a while to realize that the preview refreshes to show the total yardage you are ordering and not just a snippet.

i had also considered doing these by myself because i saw somewhere that you can essentially print on fabric with freezer paper.  the cost ended up being around the same so i went with printing at spoonflower.  i thought their prices were pretty reasonable.
i then had to cut these by hand. where i realized that i made mistake #1.  not leaving a gap for cutting.  the 4 napkins were printed one right next to the other so there were no gaps.  i had to try to cut precisely. 

then i had to finish these on the sewing machine.  i got so frustrated because i was trying to learn to use the narrow hem foot.  super useful tool but takes a while to master.  i think i spent half of the napkins trying to master it.  and even then there are mistakes in almost all of them =[