For the Bride and Her Gals

I give all the credit for these wonderful gifts to my talented daughter Shannon. She has come into her own as far as creating items of interest for herself and others.

These days, I think more parents should teach their children the art of creation. There certainly is something to be said for young minds that can create.

Ok, a little off track there, so here we go with gifts for the bridal party. A few years ago, Shannon asked me to make personalized mason jars for the bridal party of one of her good friends from Cortland, NY. She said they loved them so much, she asked me to make them for Amanda's bridal party.

A bit of a different style and a few years of experience prompted me to create these beverage holders from Shannon for the bride and her girls.

The process of designing, cutting, weeding, and readying them to adhere to the jars.

Added the colors of the cermony to the jar top and straw.

A little more bling for the bride.

Of course, I would not forget the groom.

Liz seems to be enjoying her beverage after getting her make-up done. 

Shannon and Desiree enjoying their beverages as well. 

And a special plastic personalized beverage container for the cutest one in the group. 

My favorite drink from Shannon's repertoire is her White Sangria. Perfect for a summer day anywhere. She also makes a Firefly Sweet Tea concoction. I'm not a fan of the south's sweet tea, I'd rather have an unsweetened version.

Her set up is beautiful; right down to the eco-friendly straws for the other consumers. 

Lunch was a simple spread of sandwiches, veggies, and fruit. 

Thank you, Gram Rita, for providing these goodies.

Shannon's additional gift included a personalized hanger for Amanda's wedding dress

and signs for the reception that asked guests to post pictures with the hashtag of #meetthebullards.

These are the beautiful ladies that supported Amanda through her journey with Eddie. From left to right: Jess, Liz, Daniell, Kristina, Amanda, Shannon, and Desiree. All kind souls committed to Amanda's and Eddie's happiness for years to come.    

 I just love everything about this union.

For the Groom and his Men

Shannon was in charge of providing the girls with a snack and drink while they were getting ready; that will be in the next post.
She also wanted to give a small gift to the guys, so she decided on a little bottle of a favorite for all of them. 

HannahRuth took some cute shots of the little guys before they were consumed by the bunch of groomsmen. 

I added these print and cut tags to make them special. 

Not sure what Jake is doing here. Hmmmm... is he looking for the clarity of the spirits? I hope he doesn't think us northerners would pass these off as colored water?  LOL 

I made the koozies for the guys. The most difficult thing about this was the ability to find coral colored non-printed, unsewn, koozies. It took about 3 weeks to finally find them.  I then put my Cricut to work with iron-on vinyl. 

 I then sewed them together.

Amanda contacted me with a last minute change to these bad boys. I was worried I wouldn't be able to find them, but my sister, Kim and I scoured the web and finally found some in coral that were already sewn. Little did I know, the sewn ones were much easier to work with. 

The koozies were part of the gifts from the groom for his men. Good job, Eddie! 

I can't say enough about these southern gentlemen.  I indirectly met most of them through facebook posts and judged them to be funny, respectful and kind. I was very happy to have met them and found my instincts about them to be correct. Eddie has a great bunch of family and friends and it was fun to share the week with them and their families. 

LOL! It's a good thing, Eddie Bullard; I wouldn't expect any less for my niece! 

Thanks for a memorable week. 

Cosmetic Bags for the Bride, Bridesmaids, and Mothers

My second gift to Amanda was these cosmetic or travel bags for the bridesmaids and the mothers. I wanted a specific cotton fabric to embroider on and it took me weeks and a lot of searching the web for what I was looking for. I don't think you can see the detail in the white cotton fabric, but it has seashells and it was perfect.  In a few of the pictures below, the detail of the seashells is more prominent. 

The coral and teal fabric below was exceptional compliments for what I envisioned for the bags. 

When preparing the bag, I used the coral satin for the lining and iron on interfacing.

The next step was to embroider the outside of the bags. 

The design I picked was from a package from Designs by JuJu at https://www.designsbyjuju.com/wedding-word-art-2. It included the design for the Mom's and for the Bride. 

I embroidered one side with "I Do Crew" and the opposite side with the girl's names. 

For the mom's, I embroidered the saying of "They lived happily ever after" hoping the moms would think of Amanda and Eddie in that way.

You can see the shell detail of the white fabric much better in these photos.

The bride's bag is her title on one side and name on the other.

 

Don't tell anyone, but these Dollar Store compacts were something I stumbled upon while in there one day. Personalization with the letter of their first name made them extra special.

I enjoy making jewelry and have done so for about ten years. I decided early I would put a pair in each of the bags for the bridesmaids to wear with their casual outfits during the week or after. 

Amanda is partial to gold and I added a bead of coral to match the wedding color. 

Except for the time it took, I enjoyed making all of these gifts. I only hope the recipients enjoyed them as much as I did creating them.

The final gift from Amanda to her bridesmaids. She is a stylist so it was natural to have some special hair products and a manicure set for the girls. 

Lessons learned:
1. Wish I thought to take a picture of the girls with their bags. :(
2. Know your limits. When I get an idea in my head I'll search the world (wide web) for the particular fabric or embroidery design I want. Such was the case for the white cotton, shell print fabric. It took me weeks to find what I wanted and, luckily, I got it for a decent price. Did it stress me out? Yes.  Was it worth the aggravation? Yes.  I guess this is just who I am.
3.  Plan for some time to complete what you want to create. This particular project, plus the groomsmen gift took me all summer of 2017 to complete. Am I happy it took my summer vacation from work to complete these things? No. Was it worth it? Yes!
4. Take some time to learn how to use your machines if a project this complicated is in your future.  I  am a newbie with embroidery on my new machine. I was scared these would be a total flop. All in all, I think they turned out well.
5. Do what you love, Love what you do!

Have you ever experienced some of the situations I wrote about? I'd love to hear about them if you have.