Wedding Day

Since July, I've known that one of my bestest friends in the whole wide world was GETTING MARRIED!! There are a handful of girlfriends in my life who (behind RJ) know everything about me...but Em is one of those people. Which is kind of scary that she knows me that will and has still stuck by my CrAzY after all these years.

So I was thrilled that I had the opportunity to help with the wedding.

I offered to have the wedding at my house. Although my house is small & simple...I was happy to host. Emily's sister was going to be in charge of flowers & her Mom, in charge of the food. Which left me with ONLY decorations to cover! (squeal...MY FAVE!!!) The instructions that I got from Emily was to keep it simple! The ceremony was family only-Small and intimate, and I think she wanted the decore to match. I did my best to try!

I asked for help from a mutual friend, Holly Moore. She is one of the most creative women that I know! For the last month or so, Holly & I have had a great time researching decoration online & bouncing ideas back and forth until we decided on every last detail.

Here's what we came up with...

~WELCOMING GUESTS~

This framed 'M' hung on the front door.

As guests arrived they had a chance to write notes to the happy couple on the entry way table in a small notebook I found at Ross.

I personalized the book by adding their name & wedding date in vinyl on the binding.

The table was decorated with a framed copy of their invite.

A small black sofa table adorned the hallway for guests to leave their gifts.

 Decorated with a lantern, small bundle of flowers & a custom wedding tile.

 One of my favorite details of the decorations were the small pearl buttons we attached to many of the decorations. So CUTE!!

 Hanging over the table in front of the den doors, was a printed version of Dean & Emily's "Love Story." So guests could read about their courtship.

The back patio was decorated with another sofa table & black park bench.

Even my outside sconces got a make over for the wedding. A quick coat of black paint, vase from the dollar tree and flowers.

 The table was filled with pictures of the Bride & Groom from when they were younger. As well as one large pic of them together.

 I edited the childhood pictures to be black and white with small touches of blue in each one. For Example:

(Aren't they so darn cute!! I mean Emily & Dean.)

We also filled a couple small milk glass vases with blue candy...just to add some more blue to that table.

~FAVORS~

Found small wedding bubbles on sale at Hobby lobby 50 for $5.00 so I HAD to buy them!!

Added a small tag with initials and wedding date that matched the wedding tile I made them :)

~THE CEREMONY SPACE~

30 freshly painted black wedding chairs faced a small white drapery backdrop framed in with a topiary tree & lantern on each side of it.

Large lanterns and white rose pedals decorated the aisle

 The backdrop did great until about 10 minutes before the ceremony started, when it blew over twice!! UGH!! I'm grateful for a hubby who quickly put it back together and made sure it didn't do it again by moving 2 HUGE pots behind it to brace it.

~LUNCHEON~

After the ceremony, we had a light lunch before the happy couple left for their honeymoon.

  Don't forget dessert...

 Instead of cake, Emily ordered cupcakes which were made by one of my beautiful Beehives. They were DE-LISH!! Not to mention beautiful.

 We served those on monogrammed paper plates.

 ~EATING AREAS~

(small round table outside)

 We decorated 4 tables that guests could eat at. 3 outside and 1 inside. All had black table clothes and a B&W table runner on them. The table scape was a lantern centerpiece filled with a blue candle, 2 cylinder vases (wrapped with ribbon & filled with flowers), 2 small mercury vases (with a small baby's breath arrangement), & 4 small glass votive holders (that I had decorated with vinyl-either and 'M' or a Fleur dE lis).

Because of the wind and the cold, most everyone ate inside. But the tables looked beautiful anyhow :)

Inside Kitchen table

~BATHROOM~

I really LOVE to make my bathroom match any event I have at my house.

~DETAILS~

Decorating is all in the little details...I've gathered a few pics of things that Holly and I made/created for the wedding that I LOVED!! Little things that probably no one else even noticed but I love to do.

Matching tags for all the food.

 Well Wishes sign with small jewel as the i dot.

 Vases wrapped with ribbon & jewel

 Vinyl on all of the glass votive holders

 Large candles in lanterns wrapped with ribbon and jewel

 Homemade mercury glass vases (yes!! I did them)

 Vases & flowers wrapped with ribbon and intricate paper

 Home made cupcake stands made out of my milk glass platters and glass candle stick holders. Then ribbon weaved through the edges...soooo cute!!

Tile tied with ribbon & jewel.

Congrats to the happy couple, Dean and Emily! So excited for both of you.

Thanks for the chance to help with your important day.

Be~YOU~tiful

The end of last year, I did a lesson in YW about "Recognizing our Individual Worth." For that lesson, I thought it would be fun to give each of the girls a small compact.
I found some online for only .75 each (that included shipping). Then I added a small tag that said "Be-YOU-tiful," that I found on Pinterest.
Here's a look @ how it turned out.

Heart up your house

Raise your hand if you're addicted to pinterest.com?? I am, I am!! I've given myself a rule to only log on, IF I'm looking for something? Otherwise I could waste hundreds of hours searching and clicking and pinning.

However, I do LOVE that it has made coming up with holiday decor & crafts easy. I'm a REALLY good copy cat and pinterest is perfect for copy cats. Here is a look at my valentine holiday decorations...all of which I got the ideas from that AWESOME site!!

Valentine Subway Art Printable from eighteen25

 Last year I got this adorable heart candy dish on clearance at Michael's. This year I got the idea to dress it up by putting it on a small stand (which is actually a cheap dollar store candle holder, spray painted white). Cute & Cheap!! Fits perfectly next to my plate stand in the kitchen that I put small Valentine plates on which I got years ago from Crate & Barrel on clearance.

My Valentine plates on my hanging plate rack.

I got the idea for the heart specimen art from

PLEASANT HOME-Valentine Ideas

I put my own spin on it by using heart that were 3D that I got from the dollar store and cutting them in 1/2. I love the look of the glittery hearts.

And finally...here are my Valentine mailboxes that I bought for my boys last year. This year I just glued them to small stands. Which again were just small glass candle holders from the dollar tree that I painted white.

 LOVE THEM!!

I hope I shared a couple ideas that you could steal as well. All are simple and CHEAP!!

Happy Heart Day!!

~XOXO~

Laundry Room Decorations (on NO budget)

Ahhh...laundry rooms in AZ...They're not really a "room," but more of a laundry "pass through."

I got a new washer and dryer about a year ago but never completed decorating my laundry pass through. Last week I finally finished it up & I'm loving it.

Best part, I finished decorating with supplies that I already had around my house so completing this room literally cost me NOTHING!!

I got all the large bulky baskets of supplies off the shelf and just put all my laundry supplies I use in cute jars.

 

Love my new "headless lady" (as my boys call her). I found here while out shopping for something else and just had to have her. I also love my little white "finders keepers" jar. I now have a spot to put all those little treasures you find in the

washer after finishing a load of laundry.

 

Have had these old table legs in my home as decoration for years but recently took them down thinking I was done with them.

 I put them up on the shelf & they fit perfectly!!

Found these adorable laundry pictures online and fell in love with them. I printed them out, backed them with scrapbook paper & put them in some dollar store frames that I already had. They are a perfect little filler for this wall.

I've had this old antique washboard for over 15 years. It was just natural wood, old and tattered. I painted it black, decoupaged some scrapbook paper to the metal part and then added the vinyl to the top of it.

Lastly, the baskets I do still use, I spray painted black (they were a natural wood) and put them way up high on top of the cabinet.

Doing laundry in NEVER fun!! But it makes it more bearable when you have a pretty room to do it in.

"Women of Value:The Treasure Within" New Beginnings

Many months ago, (back when we were planning our "Daughter of a King" YWIE) my presidency and I stumbled upon these paintings/prints of women from the scriptures. The paintings are so beautiful that we wanted an evening that focused just on these women from the scriptures.

~PROGRAM~

"Women of Value:The Treasures Within" New Beginnings theme was born.

We decided that we would write a program that focused on the 8 different YW values and then tell the story about each of these women. That was easier said than done. I started writing the program and a writer I am not!! So after only writing the story of Hannah for the value of FAITH (4 hours=4 paragraphs)...I gave up!!

My second counselor, the LOVELY and WELL VERSED Jamie Peiper, volunteered to finish it for me. She did an AMAZING job writing a program.

With the permission of Jamie, I've attached the program for anyone else who'd like to use these paintings for their New Beginnings or YWIE. Thought we'd try to save others some time. She did such a wonderful job on it, that it really should be used again.

I began the program by talking about "earthly treasures" vs "spiritual treasures." When we gain a testimony of each value, we are literally laying up our treasures in heaven. We then had one YW read the story for each value. (so 8 YW participate) It was FAB-U-LOUS!

CLICK HERE to download a copy of the program

~DECORATIONS~

 We kept it simple...YES that's right...I did my best to keep it simple!! We really wanted to art to be the focus of the evening.

So here is a look.

We framed all the prints in large frames borrowed from our YW leaders.

Then in a smaller black frame labeled each picture with the name of the value & the name of the women.

 We bought fresh flowers in each value color and put them in a vase next to the pictures. We gave these flowers to the 11 yr. old that will be advancing into YW this year when we recognized them.

In the center of it all, we framed a beautiful picture of the temple. I found this site where you can download and print these photos of various temples.

Thank you to Mindy Evans Photography for providing this phenomenal photos to all of us who are always online looking for them :) you know you can never have too many pics of the temple when you serve in YW.

~PROGRAMS~

~DESSERT~

we served homemade cheesecake and had 8 different sauces for people to top the cheesecake with. One sauce in each value color, of course.

Our toppings we used wereFaith: White ChocolateDivine Nature: Blueberry syrupIndividual Worth: Strawberry SyrupKnowledge: KiwiChoice & Accountability: PeachGood Works: PineappleIntegrity: Blackberries

Virtue: Butterscotch

 ~HANDOUTS~

We made a small box for each YW to take home with her. We filled it with choc. treasures. 8 in each box. One wrapped in each of the value colors and labeled with the value sticker. So, so, so cute!! And CHEAP!! Less that $1 a girl. Plus, the girls always love it when the handout has something to do with food.

Good Luck to all who haven't yet done their New Beginnings program.

Hope this helps someone!!