I have the great pleasure of owning my own button maker, it’s a wonderful tool and what you can do for your wedding with it are endless.
For this particular button DIY, I chose to make buttons from an old Vogue pattern book I bought years ago. I always loved the sketches and colours in the book but didn’t really know what I was going to do with it until this project came along. These buttons are the perfect inexpensive favour or name tag, you can even match the sketch with the personality of each guest at your shower, engagement party or rehearsal dinner, or use a specific colour palette to identify which table someone belongs to.
Real photos of your guests are a great idea as well especially if they’re gathered from over the years: high school yearbooks, summer camp snapshots or university pictures. You do not have to use the original image, photocopies work just as well and don’t be afraid to experiment by selecting details or parts of an image for a button — the space is fairly small so cropping can be creative!
The button-maker at Toronto's Workroom
Materials:
Button Maker: Available for rent ($30 overnight) from The Workroom in two sizes: 1” & 1 ¼”. They sell the button parts $10.00 for 100 buttons and the rental includes professional circle cutter
Magazine or pictures, fabric, decorative papers
Tags, available at office supply or specialty paper stores
It has been a while since we have given you an update about the Crane Chandelier Project but it has not been for lack of material.
The Project is celebrating it’s first birthday at The Wedding Show this weekend and we have almost reached our one-year goal of 5000 cranes, we currently have approximately 4665 and I am sure will exceed 5000 by the end of the show. We hope to collect 10,000 cranes from engaged couples around the world by The Wedding Show in January 2011. We’re thrilled by the success we have thus far and have great expectations for the coming year, if you’re planning a trip to The Wedding Show this weekend, definitely stop by The Handmade Stand to sign one yourself.
Thank-you to Jacqueline and Ryan who in November sent us 700 cranes for the project, they were exquisitely folded and each one had a sticker with their name, date and location of their wedding. They folded 1000 cranes for their wedding as a symbol of health and happiness, and we hope the time they spent folding the cranes will give the family strength and hope as Jacqueline’s mother recovers from a heart attack she suffered the day of their wedding.
We are taking The Project to the Indie Wedding Market in Chicago at the end of the month to continue to spread the word. We just received an email from Christine Noelle of Dilly Lily in Chicago telling us that they have already started collecting cranes for us, thanks Christine!
The first step to planning a wonderful wedding day is to relax and remember the reason for the wedding is that you are getting married, in other words, you are not getting married to have a wedding.
When it comes to planning, get yourself organized and take it slowly, use all the January bridal shows, wedding magazines and blogs a source of inspiration at first, don’t let them overwhelm you. Look for inspiration in other places too, weddings are about celebrating your personalities and your style — consider what inspires you on a daily basis from a style of architecture, to your favourite artist to the first meal you and your partner shared — inspiration for the design of a wedding can come from anywhere.
When you are ready to do some serious research and zero in on trusted resources, ask your friends which shows, blogs or magazines they found had the most useful and practical information. Select a couple and stick with them.
Most importantly relax, enjoy being engaged and the wedding planning process, and take it slowly!
It’s the great Daily News round up. We’ve been blogging for a little under a year and we’re so excited to be entering 2010 — we have tons of great ideas and themes we think you’ll love but before we leave 2009, we thought we’d take a look back and re-visit some of our favourite posts.
First up, Catherine’s picks, enjoy the video theme!
It is essential to hire a professional photographer for your wedding, but a guest’s perspective can offer a completely different view of the day and their photographs can often make up an incredible second set of images, telling another version of a wedding day. After all, you can’t have too many great memories!
By Catherine Lash
While many guests have long brought their own cameras, ten years ago it was popular to leave disposable cameras on dinner tables for guests to use and leave behind for the couple to have processed. Unfortunately, those usually ended up being predominantly of friends eating, and it was quite expensive. The one thing it guaranteed though {provided the cameras were left behind}, was that the couple always saw the photos.
Now that we’re living in a digital world, and almost every mobile phone includes a digital camera that does both stills and video, it’s no longer necessary to leave cameras out. Almost everyone has some means of taking a snapshot whether they have a camera or not. In turn, guests’ photographs are also easily uploaded to any photo-sharing software from Flickr to Facebook to share the great moments of the day. One fairly new program is called Olapic, which was designed specifically for weddings and other shared events.
Now, rather than dealing with processing film, couples need only register at Olapic and upload their guest list. Olapic will then remind guests to bring their cameras to the wedding and then walk them through downloading high resolution images to the couple’s private account. The pictures remain private with the option of sharing via the major photo-sharing programs. This is yet another fabulous technological development that saves time, money AND the environment. Olapic can even print an album for you for that complementary ’second perspective’ to your photographer’s.
Happy Monday! This week, we’re inspired by the way brides and grooms choose to capture their weddings by way of camera – through photographs and video; we’re also exploring the ways in which the photographic industry has adapted, and shaped, the trends and styles of these ‘captured moments’.
As fashion and design trends evolve so do weddings and so does wedding photography. Five years ago, many wedding photographers were taking a photojournalistic approach to their work, having left the overly formal and and highly static traditional photography behind. Since then, the field of wedding photography has diversified to include an approach more akin to fine art photography, after couples began to request a return to something a little more formalized alongside the abundance of candid photographs they’d seen from previous weddings. Once again, this time in reaction to highly stylized and thematically designed weddings, photographers have begun to work with props {often provided by the bride and groom: from oversized balloons to mustaches on sticks!} and to create more dramatic and stylized photographs.
More recently, wedding videography began it’s own evolution which has meant a diversification of that field also: We’ve begun to see more creative license with it and tomorrow we’ll be bringing you an interview with one of Toronto’s top wedding videographers to get more of an idea of what goes into making a wedding reel.
In the meantime, you can look forward to the evolution of the guest’s great shot, and Wednesday we’ll bring you a completely unique, and creative wedding captured in an especially unique way via video. Thursday, we’ll look at the photo booth trend and tell you all about getting one to your wedding.
Keep your fingers crossed for Friday – we’re hoping to bring you the very first Wedding Co. video — something we’re hoping will become a large part of what we offer on the blog and in The List! Stay tuned for more on that later in the week — and if its not quite ready yet, we’ll think of something else equally super!
The winner of the Which is Your Favorite bag contest is…..Holy S.Her favourite BeeGee’s bag is Sprung Up Orange, which she says will fit right in with her spring wedding. Congratulations Holly! Holly will also receive tickets to The Wedding Show January 15-17th at the Carlu.
The contest is now closed.
The Wedding Co. and Beegee Bags would like you to arrive at your wedding in style: One lucky reader will have her choice of Beegee Bag and a pair of tickets to The Wedding Show by the end of today!
To be selected, comment on this blog entry by telling us what your favourite Beegee’s design is. The winner will be chosen at random from the entries.
Contest closes at 5pm EST today {Monday, November 30, 2009}. Good Luck!!
Tickets are now on sale for The Wedding Show, the only boutique-inspired bridal show in Toronto. We have been working hard for the past year to bring together the finest businesses in the industry for you to meet January 15-17 at the Carlu.
Sign-up to win an exclusive opportunity to design your wedding with Catherine Lash, creative director at The Wedding Co. and to take home one of 10 ultimate “To Have and To Hold” gift totes, packed with spectacular and unique finds worth $150.00 $400.00!!! (whaaahooo)
Don’t miss The Wedding Co.’s Handmade Stand, a juried collective of artisans creating unique and one of a kind items sold online.
At the showenter to win: “Niagara Wine & CulinaryExperience” from Vineland Estates Winery, Executive Travel and Crate and Barrel. This luxurious grand prize will be awarded to one show attendee and includes:
One night in the romantic Bed And Breakfast Cottage at the Vineland Estates Winery,
A guided tour of the vineyard and tasting,
Five-course chef’s tasting menu with premium wine pairings,
A complimentary bottle of wine
A Crate and Barrel wine gift package
Don’t miss The Wedding Show – an event known for endless possibilities is guaranteed to be a successful outing, even in the snow! For more information or to purchase tickets visit show online.
Enter to win the opportunity to tour The Wedding Show on Saturday, January 16 and walk away with a fantastic ‘To Have and To Hold’ gift bag, worth $150.00. now worth $450.00!!!
Join Catherine Lash, creative director at The Wedding Co., for an exclusive tour before the doors open to the public; discover the latest trends, design ideas and fashions as part of an intimate group of VIP attendees. Bring all your wedding-related questions, along with your sweetie or your BFF, and discover the endless possibilities at Toronto’s only boutique-inspired wedding event.
Click here for more information about The Wedding Show and to enter, good luck!
One of my favorite finds in New York last month at the bridal market were the ribbon necklaces by Rivini.
When I saw these wonderful pieces come down the runway, I knew they would be popular: they were beautiful AND looked comfortable on the models. Made from Swarovski crystals, pearls and tulle, and backed with silk satin, these pieces are a bold statement from the front while their ribbon tie gives them a soft flowing feeling from the back.
The ribbon comes in three different colours and there are nine different designs, they range from $550-$750. For more information contact Rivini.
As fashion and design trends evolve so do weddings and so does wedding photography. Five years ago, many wedding photographers were taking a photojournalistic approach to their work, having left the overly formal and and highly static traditional photography behind. Since then, the field of wedding photography has diversified to include an approach more akin to fine art photography, after couples began to request a return to something a little more formalized alongside the abundance of candid photographs they’d seen from previous weddings. Once again, this time in reaction to highly stylized and thematically designed weddings, photographers have begun to work with props {often provided by the bride and groom: from oversized balloons to mustaches on sticks!} and to create more dramatic and stylized photographs.
