Our Wedding: Ceremony Decor

I'm here to share some of the details of our ceremony decor! I'll be back another day to share DIYs for how I went about making the backdrop and other elements. The first step and one of the hardest steps in starting to figure out how to decorate was find a color palate. I had a heck of a time narrowing down which colors I wanted to use, then I realized I didn't need to limit myself. So, I chose all colors :) with an emphasis on blue, mint, lavender, coral, and yellow. 

Neither Kevin nor I practice any religion, so getting married in a church was not an option for us. We set our search on the UNI campus, where we both went to college and where we met. UNI had quite a few options, and we settled on the Commons Ballroom for our ceremony. We loved the wood floors, huge windows, and vintage feel of the space. Getting married at UNI is something that really meant a lot to us so it was so nice being able to incorporate our alma mater into our day. 

Below is the back of the Commons where we exited out in front of the Campanile. 

I made 3 of these chalkboard signs, and they were a few of my favorite projects! I'll be sharing a DIY soon on how I made them.

I made our guestbook out of our engagement pictures. Guests signed the outside of the photos and we now have a guestbook we'll actually look at again! To make the mini chalkboard signs, I bought wooden framed from Hobby Lobby and spray painted them and then spray painted the glass inside with chalkboard paint. For the A and K, I bought wooden letters, spray painted them, and then wiped them with a glaze to antique them. The books you see on the table are old farming books that used to belong to Kevin's grandpa. The little heart pillow was made out of my great-grandma's wedding dress. I made the color confetti with a large paper punch (this took FOREVER but I like the end result.)

Mom and I went antique shopping and found these pails. The only real flowers we used throughout the wedding was baby's breath; the other flowers you see are silk flowers. I bought a few boxes of flower petals at Hobby Lobby to put down the aisle (we didn't have flower girls so we did this ourselves beforehand.)

I made TONS and TONS of bunting leading up to the wedding. We used it in various places. I love how festive it looks, and it was well worth the time I spent making it.

I made these fabric ribbon wands kind of last minute. I wasn't planning on having anything for the "send off" but my mom convinced me to make these and I'm glad she did. I had Home Depot cut wooded dowels in thirds for me. I used various fabric I had been collecting and hot glued it on. It made for a very colorful send off!

The backdrop was the most time-consuming project of the wedding as you might guess. I made over 300 tissue paper flowers over the course of a few months. My dad designed and constructed the PVC frame the flowers hung from. It was a pretty stressful project, especially not seeing it all put together until the day before the wedding. I love how it turned out!

Thanks for reading!

Our Wedding: The Wedding Party

Hello! Now that we've gotten our pictures back I thought it was about time to start rolling out the wedding posts! I'm so excited to share all the details of our wedding with you and hopefully provide some ideas for other brides out there. We'll start the wedding posts with our wedding part!

The Ladies 

I searched long and hard for the perfect bridesmaids dresses. There were a few things that were important to me when searching for dresses. 1) I wanted them to be under $100 so my ladies didn't have to break the bank, and 2) I wanted it to be a dress they could wear again. I searched online and in stores for many months--mainly looking at Modcloth. But, the problem was I was searching in winter and and the selection wasn't appropriate for a summer wedding. I ordered a few dresses but none of them were really "right."

Kevin's sister Heather came to visit one weekend and happened to show me a new dress she got to wear to Vegas that she knew I'd love. It turns out, it was this dress! I immediately fell in love. I knew it would make the perfect bridesmaids dress for the wedding. 

Many brides think the only option for dresses is from a bridal store. Don't be afraid to think outside the box! In order to make sure everyone was able to order a dress before they sold out, we all ordered within a few days of each other, and I was able to give them a size reference based on Heather's dress. I didn't want everyone to look too matchy-matchy, so I had them choose their own accessories. I also gave all the girls a different brooch to wear as part of the gifts I gave them. I also gave them the choice of getting their hair done at the salon, as I know updos can get a little spendy and didn't want to force anyone to pay to get it done. They all looked so pretty and I just love how they all came together! :) 

The Men 

The guys' attire was actually harder to decide on than the girls'. We knew we wanted no jackets. Who wants to wear a full on suit in June? Nobody. We might as well save some money when the guys would only end up wearing them for a short amount of time anyway. I knew I wanted Kevin to look a little different than the rest of the groomsmen, so we decided on a vest for him and suspenders for the guys going with a bit of a "vintage" theme. We chose grey pants and vests as well. We also chose a variety of colors for the ties, blue for Kevin, purple for the guys, and green for the dads. Looking back at the photos I would have chosen a brighter purple against the white shirt.

The bouquets and boutonnieres are silk flowers and looked very real! I was so happy with how they turned out. We had them done by a local lady and she carried out my vision so wonderfully. I was going for a wildflower look and I just love them.

I had to include this picture. Chris and Kevin are weird friends. They grow facial hair for each other as gifts. I know, it's weird. Kevin couldn't have facial hair for a few years because of his work, but grew a beard for Chris for his wedding. Chris then asked me a few months ago if I would care if he grew a mustache for Kevin for the wedding. Haha! I encouraged it obviously. As you can see Chris looks like the biggest creeper and I'm sure his wife Allison couldn't look him in the face for the weeks leading up. Kevin clearly was infatuated. 

Good friends are the ones who will take tequila shots on your wedding day!

How to Make Phonics Phones + Why Home Depot Hates Me

This project has been on my to-do list for a long time but I never got around to it last year. This is a very simple and inexpensive project but can be a bit intimidating to figure out the right supplies. So, I'm here to show you how I did it!

First, I just want to say that every time I walk into home depot I swear everyone runs in the other direction. Between wedding projects and classroom projects, I have had a lot of odd requests. They will pretty much cut anytime for you, but not happily. Every time I tell someone what I need done, I get a long sigh and an eye roll. Oops :) 

To do this project, go to the PVC pile aisle and grab a long pipe (like 10 feet long), 3/4" in diameter. This long pipe costs $1.87. Next, smile sweetly at a worker nearby and ask if he will cut it for you. After ignoring his attitude, tell him you want it cut in lengths of 3 and 1/2 inches. This will be enough pipe for about 30 phones. I'm not planning on using that many, so I will probably donate the rest to another teacher (any takers??) 

While he is cutting the pipe, nearby you should see elbow joints. Find 90 degree joints, you need two for each phone. I'm planning on using 12 phones for my classroom, 6 for my small reading groups, and 6 to keep in my classroom library, so I bought 24 joints. These are 46 cents a piece. I also bought "abrasive grit cloth" to sand down the ends that bowed out a bit from being cut. In the end, I didn't really need this. I also bought duct tape to make them a little fancier--rainbow for the girls and batman for the boys.

The hardest part is gathering materials, the rest is a piece of cake. Here are the self-explanatory steps: 

The joints will slide right on with a little muscle. I didn't use glue, assuming my students won't tear them apart. Now that I say that, I have a feeling I'll be gluing elbow joints back on all year long...... :)

Phonics phones can be used in many ways! In small groups, students can "whisper read" into them, which allows you to listen to many readers at once. It also helps students discriminate between different sounds, which is especially helpful for students who easily mix up sounds. Phonics phones can also be used to motivate students to read to self in the classroom library. I can't wait to use these in my classroom!

Next up: I bought a tool chest of drawers from Menards to turn into an organizer for office supplies. Good times.

Baked Kale Chips

As mentioned in my last post, I picked up a bunch of kale at the farmer's market. One thing I really wanted to try with it is baked kale chips. I've seen them around on various blogs, and I've read kale chips can help calm your potato chip cravings, so it was worth a try!

In the end, there's a few things I'd do differently the second time around, but they definitely have potential.

Kale is a leafy green vegetable that's considered a "superfood." It's high in fiber and dense in nutrients. It's a good substitution for lettuce in your salad if you're not a big vegetable eater--more bang for your buck! I'm also excited to try it in my protein smoothies.

First, preheat the oven to 375. Next, tear the leafs from the stems. Toss leafs with vegetable oil in a bowl or ziplock bag. Add garlic powder and shake until the leaves are evenly coated. One mistake I made was using too much garlic powder. Just give a light sprinkle.

Next, lay the leafs out on a cookie sheet with a sheet of tin foil. This helps in cleanup and makes the kale more crispy. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and put in the over. (You could really use any seasoning you want...the recipe I followed used garlic powder and parmesan cheese.)

The recipe I followed called for baking them for 15 minutes. This was about 5 minutes too long and my chips had a little more of a charred taste than I care for. I flipped them at about the 7 minute mark. If I did it again, I'd bake for 10 minutes, flipping halfway.

It really was a strange taste. They really did taste like potato chips, just much thinner and tasted a little burnt since I cooked them too long. They were very crunchy and I'm excited to give it another try.

I thought they were OK, Kevin didn't care for them, and Brian actually liked them. We also boiled sweet corn, grilled potatoes, and grilled burgers and chicken breast. It was a delicious Saturday lunch.

 Yum yum!