120/365

Another week done. First week back to NYC after the honeymoon. Then back to Indy after my ridiculous delay (thx faa furlough) - I spent a glorious weekend at home. Monday - lunch at BJ BBQ, Tuesday - Brighton with its adorable decor, Wednesday - a selfie, Thursday - my 4 hour delay, Friday - my tulips, Saturday - going away painting, Sunday - Mini Friends present for Megan and dan.

Let's Get Married - Wedding Mad Libs, Crosswords, and Word Jumbles

Since there was a small break between the wedding and the reception while we got pictures taken in the chapel. I thought it would be fun to have some puzzles for people on the tables. This would give people something to do while waiting.  They were a huge hit and several people told me that they were a little HARD - but whatever it's not a challenge.  I created both the crossword and the word jumble with a free tool online (sorry I can't find the right link but I'm pretty sure I google crossword creater)  with them created I just copied it into Visio to manipulate the text to match out "wedding fonts".  I created the Wedding Mad Lib by taking our story and removing words adding the appropriate lable below a line and shortening it up a bit.  Some people left us their mad libs and they were quite hilarious.  Anyhow again I would have probably made less than 1/person of these and done like 3-4 of these per table if I did it again but I love these and I have some extras set aside maybe some day our kids can do them.   Thanks to my momo for sharpening all those pencils for this project too.

Let's Get Married - A Shutterfly Guestbook

I had been thinking about the guest book when I got a coupon email from Shutterfly with a free photobook. They had a template and everything so I customized it and added our photos and we had a Guestbook. It's 20 pages most have a whole page of photos on at least one spread but there was plenty of signing space. I totally love it! The pages were signed with acid free pens so they are archival safe. It's fun on the coffee table now after the wedding.

Let's Get Married - Wedding Programs

I created the programs for our  wedding as well. I created covers using green office paper that I had from a prior project, Washi Tape, Wrapping Paper Scraps and our wedding stamp we used on the invite.  I designed the content in Visio taking language found on the net and changing it to fit us.  I printed the insides on 8.5x11 paper 2 per sheet, trimmed it up stitched covers on and then viola! - I had wedding programs.  These were relatively simple in design to put together but in reality they took far too much time, especially trimming the pages next time I make programs I will make the covers from larger sized paper to avoid the excess trimming.   
They weren't perfect - and I wished I had actually made about 50 or so less of these we had 185 RSVPed guests and I made 148 programs well 100 would have been more than enough - and I was worried we would run out - I told our greeters to be stingy because we didn't have enough - HA!   Lessons learned either way I like how they turned out and that they matched other wedding items, and were relatively inexpensive with probably $10 in copier paper and $6 in washi tape, and another $4 in adhesive.    

The Real Deal Wedding aka When Dan and Megan Got Married

This weekend we celebrated our friends Dan and Megan as they started there lives together. Their wedding was absolutely beautiful and very much them, everything from their unity tree, to the daisies, to the cheesecake bar, and the beautiful hymn prayer sung by dans family, was them. I am so happy for them both and even though in the very near future they will be leaving us and moving to DC we are blessed by their relationship and impact on our lives - here's to the Veale's long and happy marriage.

Book 15 - Daring Greatly

For the record I started reading this before Brene Brown was on Oprah. Back in December And Kathleen of Braid recommended this for Creatives. I added it to my reading list because well I never actually really know what to get at the library.  Anyhow it was certainly a book worth reading.  It's a easy read and its a read where you want to bookmark and highlight content to remember so you can embrace vulnerability.  I also appreciate that her book is built on research it's not just a book telling people to deal and be happy. I love the manifesto's the parents one is also good. 

And with that I leave you with this Teddy Roosevelt quote about daring greatly -  
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; . . . who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” —Theodore Roosevelt
 

113/365

We returned from our honeymoon to enjoy a busy weekend with birthdays and weddings. Overall it was a good week.
Monday - photo from a park in Dublin
Tuesday - Temple Bar
Wednesday - Dusty and Molly Malone
Thursday - Indianapolis finally (ps we will never again fly Delta Economy to Europe - Usair economy is far superior).
Friday - Kathleen's birthday
Saturday - Megan and I at The real deal wedding
Sunday - sending a million thank yous.

Let's Get Married - Cutout Wedding Couple

I love ridiculous photo ops - obviously so this was the perfect opportunity for something extra fun so Kathleen and I used a piece of plywood and some paint and we created cutout katie and dustin - wedding style.  It was super simple 
1. Primed the board. 
2. Put on a layer of background paint.
3. We did a sketch on the board. 
4. Painted in layers.
5. touched everything up. 
6. Stood it up. 

This project never really got finished the stand wasn't ever built but we took it to the reception anyway. 

It turned out cute anyhow.  But it was a big hit at the wedding too. I wish I had everyone's photos with their faces in it but I only have these few.   We plan to save the board and keep it in our guest room.  We also think it will be fun for a playroom later on.