Both Eloisa and Ryan are urban planners and designers in Toronto, but their passions are rock ’n’ roll and the outdoors. They listen to rock ’n’roll oldies at their cottage near Parry Sound and they both play the guitar (Eloisa believes she wooed Ryan with her ability to play better than him).

The theme of their wedding was Blue-eyed boy meets brown-eyed girl, and so blue and brown became their wedding colours, as well. Ryan made the place-card holders out of wood and Eloisa designed the cards. Together they made a card box out of a tree stump and carved their names into it, and they set up their own photo booth so that friends and family could commemorate the day alongside a plastic deer. Table numbers consisted of the names of their favorite bands such as the Beatles and Eloise serenaded everyone with “Grow Old With You” by Adam Sandler (from the movie “The Wedding Singer”).

What was the most difficult part of planning your own wedding?

Trying to balance work, play, and wedding planning. We seemed to stay up late a lot because we were doing wedding-related things. Ryan was a total team player, though, for which I was very fortunate!

In retrospect, would you have done anything differently?

We were so busy with planning the actual event that we didn’t really take the time to write an awesome speech. We should have spent more time on our speech and expressed what we were really feeling. But I think we’ll have a chance to say it in our thank-you cards. Our wedding party members did amazing speeches, but I think my dad stole the show with his speech because he was hilarious and very touching at the same time.

If you had one piece of advice for couples planning their own wedding, what would it be?

Choose your venue wisely and do your research! If possible, have your ceremony venue, reception and photo ops at the same place (or have them within walking distance). This frees up some time to actually mingle with your guests and have some cocktails with them during cocktail hour.

Photography By: Captured Pieces
Photobooth photos:  bride and groom’s camera

The goal is to collect 10,000 of these peaceful tokens of love by January 2011 when The Wedding Co. will celebrate its 10th anniversary. The final creation will be a visual representation of a worldwide community of engaged and newly married couples – a community that already shares so many invisible ties. Each crane will represent one couple’s leap of love, commitment and patience. The chandelier will be on display at The Wedding Show January 14-16, 2011.

For each crane we receive, we will donate ¢50 to The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

Request a pre-made crane for yourself or an engaged friend or DIY ! Just don’t forget to write your names, your wedding date and your location somewhere on the crane. Crane can be sent to:

The Wedding Co.
110 Givins Street
Toronto, ON M6J 2X9

Help us spread the word!

Just some of the cranes from Amanda and Mike

Signed crane

The Wedding Co. is building a chandelier from thousands of origami cranes which have come from engaged couples around the world.

Alice and John, September 5, 2010

The goal is to collect 10,000 of these peaceful tokens of love by January 2011 when The Wedding Co. will celebrate its 10th anniversary. The final creation will be a visual representation of a worldwide community of engaged and newly married couples – a community that already shares so many invisible ties. Each crane will represent one couple’s leap of love, commitment and patience. The chandelier will be on display at The Wedding Show January 14-16, 2011.

For each crane we receive, we will donate ¢50 to The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation.

Crane Kits! Request a pre-made crane for yourself or an engaged friend or DIY ! Just don’t forget to write your names, your wedding date and your location somewhere on the crane. Crane can be sent to:

The Wedding Co.
110 Givins Street
Toronto, ON M6J 2X9

With construction paper, tissue, scissors and glue, the girls went to work creating one-of-a-kind crowns. Once they were completed, Nancy and Mo were given the important task of judging the hats which ended up in a tie. The tie breaker: a spoon and egg race on the grass heels and all.

This classic origami fold, which your guests will fold up to tuck in a pocket or purse, beautifully opens up again when they get home. By adding your wedding date, names or special message, the gift becomes even more poignant. Traditionally associated with good health and well wishes, the crane makes a lovely mix of traditional meaning and modern simplicity.

Remember that the best cranes are made with origami paper which comes in many styles and colours to suit your colour palette. For your first attempt, you might want to start with a six inch square piece of paper, or something larger. Once you get the hang of the fold, try a range of sizes to find what you like the best.

Custom tote bag DI

Botanical Art DIY Table Numbers

Tweet Your Favourite Lyric

Wall of Flowers: DIY Décor

Customized Tote

Custom Buttons

Ribbon & spool unravelling valentine

His & Hers Coffee Jackets

Ribbon Sachets for Trinkets

Love Doves

Origami Cranes Crane Place Card Holder

Paper Purses

Luminarias

Take The Cake

By Stephanie Sturino

This DIY can be done in any word processing program, we did ours in Word, just be sure to print your final items onto quality paper for a polished look, try specialty stores like The Paper Place. We chose a heavy card-stock paper in a shimmery off-white.

Method

• Using the online collection of botanical illustrations from the New York Public Library, link below, copy and paste a favourite image into a blank document.
• Next, select a font for the text. On our samples we used a soft and elegant font to give a more sophisticated feel, look at font download sites like dafont.com for inspiration. Be sure to set your image behind your text, so the number can be sit on top of the image. Colour and size of the font is up to you, try to coordinate with your colour palette. Once you’ve perfected your image, print and test for size. We chose to cut down our image to a 5″x7″.
• We love the idea of having different but coordinating frames for each table. Shop local antique markets for vintage inspiration. We also created a sample without a frame that can be incorporated into a centerpiece or sit neatly in a place-card holder, we used a plastic cube holder. The key to this alternative is the double layer of heavy card-stock, which helps it stand straight. To do this, simply measure out a rectangle about half an inch bigger than your image and secure the two with glue. We also used a rounded cut-out for our corners, a variety of design cut-outs can be found at any local craft store.
• Alternatively, use tear outs from botanical art calendars or old books to avoid any computer programs and print or stamp a number on to them.

Notes on Sources: Botanical Art at the New York Public Libraries link, DaFont

If you have a favorite line from a song, poem or book that conjures up an image of you as a couple why not share it with your guests, there are many ways to go about it, here is just one simple DIY to give your guests a little insight to who you are.

Décor your tables: name card, cake & dining, with the image of song by placing these adorable birds snuggled into little nests, tweeting a song lyric that you love. You can do so many things with these little birds, perch them on a glass, fit them into your centrepieces, use them as wedding cake toppers and give them away as favours. If you are having a flock of these ’song’ birds at your wedding, do not limit yourself to one lyric, choose as many as you have birds and let your guests discover the common theme.

Materials need for tweeting your favourite lyric

Materials:

• Birds, nests and moss (all available at Michael’s craft stores)
• Favorite lyric printed onto white paper (card stock preferably)
• Cutting board, xacto knife and ruler

Steps:

1. Print lyric onto paper, the size and colour of the bird will dictate the font size and colour.
2. Cut the lyric out with the knife, make sure you leave plenty of space on both sides so you can cut a ribbon effect and gently fold the paper onto itself for a 3 dimensional feel.
3. Assemble.