sitting and waiting...

I haven't blogged much this week due to creating these little beauties all 115 envelopes are addressed, with 20 waiting confirmation of addresses.. mostly FHs fault because he hasn't taken the time yet to get the addresses that I asked for weeks ago ! :P

Because my handwriting is barely legible but to me readable. I decided to print the addresses. I ran them through our home printer using Freebooter Script from http://www.dafont.com/ and I created a little sender logo and printed on the back of our envelope.

I also included a crappy photo of the sender logo on the back the pic does not do it justice! lol, maybe I'm a little biased tho!

So now to complete the invitation I still have to do the accommodation card. Which I haven't been able to do till I get our confirmation number from the hotel. Nearly there!

Are you handwriting your envelopes or are you doing what I did and taking them through the computer?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

So can I present to you our cake?

I found our cake, I surely did, its going to be buttercream color with chocolate mudcake inside.... and look really elegant.. (well I hope it will). Surrounded by our cupcakes which I posted earlier.

Here's the inspiration pic, of what I gave to my dear friend Catherine.

She says she can create this for us. :) YAY! the ribbon shall be orange.. and I went on the hunt yesterday to find a brooch similar... And I did.. except it cost 160.00 dollars. EEP!!

I found one that's not as perfect but at least I'm not going to spend time worrying about it if it gets lost. And its going to do the job. It also cost $14.95. That's a bit of difference in money!
Here it is;

*sigh* I love it when I find a bargain and when another job is completed!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Save the Date & Favor template from Burrs & Berries

I found some Printable “cootie catcher” save the dates and favor labels in yellow, navy, and white by Samia Kallidis of Burrs & Berries.

If you like these you can find the template here.

http://www.nonpareilmag.com/downloads/issue-02-printable-diy-cootie-catcher-save-the-dates-favor-labels/

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Vintage Paper Templates- freebie!

E.M Papers have provided this black and white printable Wedding Invitation Kit and it contains an editable PDF template for every piece of stationery you will need for your wedding. This free, downloadable wedding kit includes a templates for: a wedding invitation, a save the date card, a response card, a wedding program, a menu, place cards/escort cards, table numbers, a seating list and a thank you card.

Here's the link:
http://www.empapers.com/wedding/free-black-white-printable-wedding-invitation-kit-bike

Pretty cute :) I really like the whole set, makes me want a vintage wedding just to use these!
Enjoy!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Sparklers.. your so cool!

I have decided I want sparklers at my wedding.. just cause these photos make it look cool. (Im probably copying millions of other weddings with this idea, but I figure its ok, because I generally love it!)

So whose with me? :) anyone having them at their wedding?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Favors, home stretch!

So I finished wrapping our favors! yay!!

and the last section of this job was to create our favor tags today. Using a free template from http://www.prettychicky.com/ I adjusted the design to suit us and changed the font and things to tie it all in and pictured is the end result. Here is a pic of what the original template looked like.

And here is what ours look like:

Anyone DIYed there favors tags? did you use a template or create your own?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

blinging with the best of em.

So yesterday I went with out BMs and got all there little accessories and wraps but I kept on walking past this bracelet at a store called hot house..
I went and visited it three times yesterday till one of the BMs said will you just buy it already!

So i did! It was in a 50% off sale and well I love sales.
I don't think Ill have any necklace on the day, just this and some blinging earrings. I will need to see if it works tho with the dress, it not. I have an awse bracelet to rock out with!

Anyone else find a good bargain for their day?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Flowers you may look pretty

but I have no idea which one, I want, like or what they are even called!!!!! I was meeting with florist tomorrow morning, but I called and re-arranged for the following Saturday. Because I started searching for inspiration on flowers, and well I thought this would be an easy task.... B.S on the easy part!

Found way too many that I like, I don't even know what the flowers are called but my florist does, and shes amazing! So here's a few piccies I found on the net. I really want to have orange flowers or orange and red. Pic heavy post!

This one is a little Christmas but I still like it.. think I need to go a little lighter tho

Kudos to budget bride for coming up with this number

not a fan of the green loopy things (sorry if anyone here is a florist) But I like the flowers! (ignore the red arrangement in the above one, its the ones up the back I'm interested in!)

Anyone had any hassle in choosing there bouquet and is this supposed to be easier?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Cupcakes and cake - fave topic!

So I realised I hadn't posted in nearly 4 days.. Has that got to be a record?

Today is a BIG week in regards to wedding stuff, one of these is that we picked out our cake!!!!, that will be surrounded by cupcakes. Picture the cake below, in butter cream color, chocolate on the inside with orange ribbon and gold brooch. CUTE OVERLOAD!! our friend Catherine is going to make this for us. Very exciting!

The cupcake.. so after having about 40 designs to choose from this one made the final cut! Picture this: Chocolate cake, butter cream color cream and alternating orange and red flowers. We are getting a local vendor to make 150 of these.

Makes me hungry just looking at them! I cant remember where I got the pics from, I somehow added and added more pictures and forgot to write locations. But if you stumble on this blog and your reading this and your cute cake and cupcake is pictured... I appreciate you forever!

Anyone DIYing there own cake or are you purchasing?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Invitations,favors and bridesmaids!

So this weekend I finished assembling invitations, all that is missing however is the accommodation card, we haven't quite put that together yet as we haven't blocked off hotel rooms (I know, 5 months till the wedding and I haven't done it, oh dear!) its on the to do list for next week.

I also started work on our favors with the packaging, as you may have gathered from previous posts that we organised to have our favors for guests as playing cards...Well they arrived!
My next task is to package them. I thought about just wrapping them in plain ribbon without doing anything with the box but that Idea just did not sit well. I also thought about wrapping them and putting a sticker on them. Well I didn't have the motivation or the creativity to even think of what to do for a sticker. So I took an easy option. I wrapped and tied it with ribbon.

The end result looking cute! So far 20 done... 160 more to go. its actually not a bad project, a little fiddly but I have been out in the lounge room with FH talking away and having a good laugh so its been enjoyable. Hoping to have this done by the end of the next week.

Also this weekend my BMs and I are catching up for a bit of a day shopping for accessories and shoes to go with their dresses also they are helping me out with a few DIY things and flower choosing.... I haven't shown you pics of their dresses yet but I promise to do that next week.

So its an exciting week coming up. I feel alot better than last week but still quite crook so I'm hoping to have the energy for when the girls come round next Saturday.

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Underwater seating cards?

I absolutely adore this! I found it on project wedding. However I'm not really thinking seating cards as I'm not having a sit down meal. But I am thinking of having our names submerged and in vases with our button balls sitting on top!!

I feel the inspiration has hit my corner...

*adds to do list*

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

I have been taken over... by my invites

or they have at least taken over my study anyway... 110 down... 60 more to go! least they are getting done! even tho they are a pain in the butt to step around!


Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Can I have lighting like this please?

I want lighting in our reception exactly like this... I hope people wont see this as over the top, but there alot of blank wall at our reception!

Just an idea.. My brother is an electrician so I might run this by him and hope its ok with the venue.. I found this while reading Eric egwers website.. So talented! http://www.erichegwer.com/wedding-stuff/wedding-decoration-lights

Are you having lighting at your wedding?

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Fabric Flower wrist corsage.. SO CUTE! Tutorial

I found the the Instructions for making this beautiful corsage on elizabeth anne designs blog and thought I would share.

1. Cut a 4×18 inch strip of fabric - you may need to play with the width and length to get the look you are going for.

2. Fold the fabric hot dog style (so the long edges meet) with wrong sides together. Press with an iron.

3. Using a loose straight stitch sew the open long edges together (leaving about 1/4 inch)

4. Pull the bobbin thread to gather the material. The more you pull the more it gathers. You will have to kind of play with the fabric to make it gather evenly.

5. Once you are happy with the amount of gather begin rolling the strip up - so it looks like a spiral. So start at one end and just roll. The tighter you roll the more open your flower will be.

6. Once you are happy with your flower hand sew the bottom together (the bottom is the edge with the seam - the folded side should be the open part of the flower). Be sure you get through all the layers - don’t worry this part doesn’t have to be pretty.

7. Once your flower feels like it is secure and will not unravel use a hot glue gun to attach it to a piece of ribbon. Voila! You have a corsage.

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Cuttlebugging my heart out!

Just a quick post; My friend Sue let me borrow her cuttlebug today and Ive been cuttlebugging our invitations and putting them together. Been a busy week with these invites and glad to see them on there way to completion. I LOVE the cuttlebug effect. The paper is actually gold but in the pics its looking a little brown, and the invite is orange not red. The lighting in my study isn't that good!

I haven't been making many posts as I'm struggling a little health wise and its been a rough two weeks at work with deadlines. Hopefully I will be on track soon!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Invitations - take forever!

So the last few days, I have been tweaking and creating our invitations, and I'm happy to report all is done on the way of printing side except the map.

Here's were we are at now!

The Invitation:

The RSVP Card

The Reception Card

So its all coming together after my disaster of my last invitations. The idea from here is to create the map, and then create the paper band that I'm going to use to keep these together. A friend of mine is letting me use her cuttlebug machine, so there could be some fancy embossing going on.

But I'm keen to have a play on the cuttlebug machine as I don't have one.... yet... :P

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Trashing that dress - could you do it?

So I was looking at Trash the dress photo sessions, because well even tho I cant do it myself, I always thought that Wedding dresses once worn are preserved and carefully looked after by the bride, right?

Its not so many brides are now trashing their dresses. They are going to the beach rolling around in sand, waiting for a rainy day and lying in the mud or splattering themselves in paint, having piccies taken against graffiti walls, Setting them a light! I LOVE looking at trash the dress photos because of all the exciting possibilities.

Found this photo from http://www.bluenaluphotography.com
While searching for TTD sessions cause I admire girls who can do this.

Cause I sure as hell cant.... Are you able to do this?




Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

New project - WHOSE KEEN?

Ladies, reading my blog must have been a little boring these last few days, but that's about to change because I spotted this pretty cute DIY on wedding chicks today (man, I love that site) and I'm thinking about adding this to my project list which is always expanding and never enough time for. But they are so cute! I really want one...


For the DIY on how to do this.. or the 411, or the skinny, or the instructions.. Click on the following link:

http://www.weddingchicks.com/wedding-chicks/diy-templates/26371/diy-floral-container-covers

I'm still deciding...can imagine it in an awse orange and red print... *sigh*

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Photoshop Problem SOLVED

It really pays to blog!!

I posted my problem and received and email this morning from a girl called brittany who could help me with my problem. She took the time out and fixed it for me, I received the email of the end result and squealed (and I'm not the type of girl that squeals normally). It has seriously made my day!! Thanks Brittany!! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY A LEGEND!!

Now that I have the template Ill be able be stepping in the right direction.. (or in today's case.. skipping!).

Thanks!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

Photoshop Help

So im posting this everywhere I blog, wedding forum, technical help and it can only help to post here too!

I downloaded a free invitation that FH and I really like and we are allowed to alter it. It came in photoshop format to make our own.

My problem is, I CAN get the background and the wording to change color, but I CANNOT get all of the flower to go orange. I have mucked around and seriously there has got to be some shortcut part from match color to get the whole flower to go orange?

My end goal is to make the background white, the font orange and all of the flower orange.

If anyone has any tips? or advice or a how to that would be great. I have photoshop CS3, indesign and illustrator so any instructions will do!

Thanking you! Much appreciated!

Coastal City Bride- Charis xx

March To do list

• Just posting up my March to do list - just for my reference so I can keep on track!
  
  
  •Bridal Registry
  •Pay deposit on music entertainment
  •Wedding cake still looking for inspiration
  •booking transportation
  •Book time off work for wedding and honeymoon
  •pay deposit on honeymoon
  •Visit florist
  •Book Hotel Accommodation
  •Get passport for honeymoon.
  
  DIY projects:
  
  
  •Wedding invitation, design and print
  •Button Balls
  •Ribbon Wands
  •Wedding sign
  •Completion of Wishing board.
  
  That's it, bit more on this month. Last month was just flaming ridiculous.
  
  Coastal City Bride - Charis xx

not my weekend. Invitation epic failure..

The word of the moment:

Failure: The condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends;

So usually I post about what DIY projects Ive done and mainly just the successes and never the failure, because.. well who likes to fail??

Well today, I failed, I failed epic.

I thought I would handle the never wanting to do stuff. i.e. ribbon pomanders and the maps and accommodation cards for my invitations.

So I had finished my invitations awhile ago, well RSVP cards and background pretty much completed as below.

looking pretty suave right? for my first DIY attempt on things wedding, I was really stoked with my effort.

I opened up the invitations today to work out the maps sizing and stuff and to my dismay, when I opened it, some of the double sided tape had started to peel causing the wraps to FALL OFF! I opened the next one, the ribbon was starting to come off on that one. I opened all 150 base invitations and 55 of them were useless.. I nearly fainted actually (you know how you get that head spin sometimes when things aren't just going right?).

According to FH my face went white as a sheet.. and took about 5 minutes for it to get color again.

WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!! is my immediate reaction, I could re glue them? but then I figured by the time I re glue them, I will have to fix the others, as some when the ribbon was falling off, well.. it didn't exactly look fab.

So after a 30 min discussion and series of trials and errors with trying to fix it we decided it would be best if we made new invitations. With 6 months to go, I can do it. We also decided.. NO gluing.. I'm not gluing a thing on my new invitations or try to avoid it!

Well after a further half hour of discussion all 150 invites, went in the bin and 55 smaller invitations. I cried, in fact I wont lie... I BAWLED my eyes out. I hate failing, (prob just like everyone else) absolutely hate it with a passion. Seeing something you work really hard at fall to pieces. Mind you not the end of the world its only invitations FH keeps reminding me and hes right, its just paper.. He was just as disappointed as me and been in a glum mood as he helped create them.

So the hunt has begin for new ones and FH has joined in on this and boy are there some beauties!

So seeing paper creations for the last 4hrs on the internet has kinda perked my mood up, so all is not lost and I am brimming with ideas.

If anyone actually has a template or post were they got there invitations from I really would appreciate it, would love to see what others are doing!

Coastal City Bride - Charis xx