Family has always been extremely important to me. My mom is my best friend, my dad my greatest protector and my brother my partner in crime. The four of us are quite a tightly knit group and that may have made me seem odd when I was younger but now that I’m in my twenties I appreciate it. When I was younger and kids at school would ask me what I was doing over the weekend I would always respond with “I’m not sure, something with my family” and I would always get this look that made me feel weird. Now at 24 when I answer my friends the same way they look at me with envy.
When my fiancé Joe started hanging around on the weekends with my family I started realizing that he was going to fit in just fine as well. Yes my parents’ and brother’s opinions meant something to me and when they gave the stamp of approval without even knowing it I knew Joe would become a second son to my parents and a brother to mine. So now we are a nice little family of five and although we get busy and don’t always have as much time for each other as we usually do we still know that we will always be there for each other when needed.
These past few weekends have actually been full of family time and we’ve actually gotten the chance to get even closer and enjoy things together. Joe and I are trying to keep our wedding budget rather small which means lots of DIY projects rather than buying things premade. So far we have made boutonnieres, my bouquet, our guestbook and now a homemade batch of wine that will be ready just in time for the wedding.
The boutonnieres were a very quick and easy project. We bought some vintage keys from The Brass Armadillo (one of our favorite antique shops) and some ivory ribbon. From there it was as easy as tying a bow.
My bouquet consists of a foam ball, rice lights embedded from the inside of the ball, fabric and fabric pins. This project has taken some time because we are making the patches of fabric look like small flowers and then we are pinning them into the foam. Because our wedding is going to be at night I wanted a little bit of light added to my bouquet so the rice lights that we poked through to shine through the fabric give me that. This project was a little more difficult and is still not complete but my dad has been a huge help with this one.
A few weekends ago I we decided to get cracking on our guest book. I had found this idea on pinterest so we started with that and then it evolved into something so much better.
First we bought seven 3-foot pieces of wood and three 2-foot pieces to make the pallet. We had a few different ideas on how to get the pieces together and finally decided on using biscuits. Joe found a biscuit jointer on sale and we bought that and the biscuits to start this project. My dad helped with some ideas on the best way to use the biscuits and our best plan of attack. Then it was time to drill the slots for the biscuits and then glue them in.
We had to let the biscuits and glue dry overnight so then Sunday we were going to sand and stain the wood. Joe and my dad got to talking Saturday night and come up with the idea to engrave the heart I was originally going to paint onto the wood. So after sanding the crap our of this wood we found a nice pattern to follow of a heart and dad engraved it. After that was done it was time to stain the wood.
The wood we bought was a red oak that was actually very light in color. Joe and I have always loved a bit of a darker wood feel so we bought some red mahogany wood stain and a few coats of that made it look amazing. Then we sealed it so the stain wouldn’t scratch or anything like that.
The last touch was painting on our last name and our wedding date. After finding the right stencil and color of white paint (who knew there were so many different variations of white) we painted that on. One last coat of sealant and this baby is ready to be written on with paint pens.
Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments below.
Day to Day with Britni J 