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Livin' up to Mah Namesake: Brooch Bouquets

So I'm Miss Brooch, right and what's a new wedding trend?

Brooch bouquets!

Did you think I was going to let you down and not live up to mah namesake? No way! This is something I must undertake, it's only right. I have to be honest though, and say I'm not totally crazy about the all-brooch bouquets, but I do like the idea of having a few brooches in the bouquets. Especially because I collect butterfly brooches and have waiting my whole life to find a good use for them.

The butterfly brooches (and maybe some other random vintage brooches) will hopefully compliment our garden chic theme, and maybe this little idea provides some beautiful bouquet photos.

Here's a few favorites from my inspiration file:

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How do you feel about brooch bouquets?

Did you add brooches to your bouquets?

New Takes on Tradition

We really want our wedding to be a unique and fun experience for our guests, and some of the age-old traditions, like the garter and bouquet toss don't really excite Mr. B and me. We want to do something a little different during our reception, like Mrs. Hot Wings' deal or no deal game.

We are still very much in the discussion stage of this and haven't ruled out (or made any final decisions) on our ideas, but we have tossed around quite a few ideas, which I would love to run past you gals for your opinion!

The Anniversary Dance:

First, I have to admit, this idea wasn't mine. I heard about it from my genius co-bride (my coworkers whose also engaged). We have very different styles, but every now and then one of us comes up with an idea the other has got to snag. (Confession: She does most of the brainstorming, I do most of the snagging!)

The Anniversary Dance is when all the married couples join the new bride and groom in a dance, and the MC eliminates couples based on the length of time they've been married. Eventually the couple married the longest is left dancing alongside the new couple and the reward (besides our total admiration) is the bride's bouquet! You can read more about this idea here at the Knot.

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The Newlywed Game:

We're also thinking about trying The Newlywed Game. We did something similiar at our engagement party where guests asked us questions about each other. In this verison, the MC will ask us certain questions and we will raise a flag (pink for the bride and blue for the groom) to answer. I got the idea from here from Thao and Robert's blog.

It really looks like a lot of fun and I think our guests will be entertained!

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Check out other new takes on tradition here on Weddingbee.

Are you keeping with the bouquet and garter toss tradition?

If not please share your wedding day games and/or activities.

Our Save the Dates: Are Finally Done!

Whew! That project was a lot more work than I anticipated, but so much fun! I still can't believe we did it. We made our own Save the Dates! Yay! Fabulous ones, too! Big, lovely magnets with our awesome engagement photos on them. Double score! Now, since I made you wait so long to see the final product, I thought I'd let my adorable pup, Rocko share the first look. Isn't he cute?

I'm so happy with the way that the envelopes turned out. Especially the labels.

It's what's inside that counts, though.

We chose three different designs for the magnets.

The first is my favorite:

Notice that we rounded the corners, like Mrs. Sunrise!

Here you can see the piles.

I'm so glad we're not having a big wedding (well, not too big).

I can't imagine making 200 of these puppies!

All ready to go! We just have to stamp 'em!

Tell me about your save the dates.

Did you make magnets? How did you package them?

Our Save the Dates: The Legwork

Beware: This is a picture-heavy post... 

Before revealing our Save the Dates, I thought would share the how-to story. That way you have to suffer with me through the process, just as I did (muahaha!). Remember, I explained the roadblocks and hiccups we experienced trying to put them together? Well, they did, eventually, come together, one step at a time!

Step One: Making the Envelope Pretty:

Save the Date Stamp

Inkpad

Embossing Ink

Heating Tool

Lightly stamp the top left corner of each envelope:

Cover the stamped area with embossing powder:

Dump the excess embossing powder from the envelope:

Note: I flicked the paper a few times to get rid of the excess powder and quickly learned that is not the best method. It causes some of the powder to fall off of the stamp part, which is actually where you want the embossing powder to stay! A much better idea is to blow on the paper, which clears the extra powder, but allows the bulk of it to stick to the stamp.

Heat the portion of the envelope with the stamp + embossing powder with the heater and voila:

 

Step Two: Dressing the Magnet:

Ribbon (we chose green to match our envelopes)

Cardstock

Corner Rounder Punch

Computer + Ink 

I knew I wanted to include a small note in with our save the dates. It wasn't enough for me to just throw the magnet in an envelope. So using the ribbon below, we tied a bow to hold our note.

I typed "Please Visit OurWebsite" in two columns in a document on the computer and printed it on cardstock. I cut up the pieces using a cutting board and rounded the corners:

Using a hole puncher, I put a whole in each note so that we could attach it to the ribbon. Here are a few pictures of Mama Brooch assembling the ribbon and labels:

Step Three: Addressing the Envelopes:

Computer

Printer

Cutting board

Sticker Machine

This was the last piece of the puzzle. I just had to figure out how to address the envelopes and we were done! At first, I was going to use the label below found via The Knotty Bride, but the polka dots weren't quite what I had in mind. Problem is this was the ONLY pink address label (free printable label, that is) I could find online:

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It took me about a day to figure out something better. Something told me to try to make the label myself on the computer... We've all had those moments, huh? So I hopped on Microsoft Word and started playing around, adding text boxes, and borders.

Low and behold, my own little perfect labels:

I ran each label through the sticker machine, because it's only 2.5 inches wide (And guess what? I broke one trying to refill it! It was definitely not pretty! Woosah!). Eventually, I bought full sheet labels. It was a lot faster and more cost effective than the sticker machine. 

Then, finally, after all the pieces where in the envelope, I sealed it with the label: 

How did you create your Save the Dates? 

Stay Tuned, Up Next: The Reveal

*Sorry for the picture quality. Our website and wedding date, names, everything was on everything! I had to do some major blurring, hopefully you don't mind.