Beach Feeling Centerpiece Inspiration

via {Green Wedding Shoes}

DIY Photo Lanterns

Everyone searches for the perfect centerpiece and when I saw this idea on Offbeat Brides DIY section, I thought what an adorable way to add some ambiance to your table! I was thinking that you could do this DIY craft with black and white photographs that could go on your guest book table or if you are doing a photo memory table, these could act as the frames for those shots. Regardless, absolutely adorable!

These are really cute and could be made to accommodate a wide variety of themes, applications and color schemes, and in a range of sizes. They're also pretty easy and relatively cheap to make! They just take a little time and a little creativity.

Materials (one lantern)

• (3) unfinished wooden picture frames with glass and backing removed (Ikea or Michaels)
• paint or finish
• (3) sheets of vellum or translucent paper
• at least (3) photos or designs (to copy onto vellum)
• hot glue gun and glue sticks
• (2) large rubber elastics
• glue dots or tape
• (1) votive candle in simple holder

arrange into a triangle

Step 1:
The first step is to paint the frames. I used a greyish-cream colored crackle paste, which worked really well for the antique look I was going for. If you're going to go the crackle route, I would recommend the crackle paste as opposed to a two-step crackle process. It goes on thick and looks like authentic old school paint.

You could use anything you like: craft paint in your wedding colors, metallic spray paint, wood finish, glitter glue, stone-textured spray paint, whatever! Just make sure that you paint both sides of the frame as the inside will be visible through the top of your lantern.

But you could do anything really: a design, a patterned print, a monogram, a poem or lyrics in a pretty font, etc. Or you could do nothing at all: just the vellum (white or in any shade) gives the candle light a soft glow and looks lovely on its own. It's totally customizable to your taste and only limited by your creativity.

bind with elastics

Step 2:
While you're waiting for the frames to dry, print or photo copy your pictures in black and white/greyscale onto the vellum. Allow it some time to dry before you work with it or it will smudge (I found this out the hard way). Cut the photos/designs to fit your frames. You can do this easily by putting the glass that came with the frame over your vellum and tracing it.

Step 3:
After the frames are COMPLETELY dry, arrange them into a triangle as shown in the picture noted. Secure them in place with the elastics, one around the top and another near the bottom.

Step 4:
Using a hot glue gun, apply a good amount of glue along the seam of two frames. Work in one small (~3 inches) section at a time and use a utensil of some sort (I used an old ruler but you should probably use a paint knife) to smooth the glue into the seam while its still warm.

After you have completely glued the seams, allow the glue to cool and set with the elastics still on. this would be a good time to remove all of those annoying "spider web" strands of glue that tend to get everywhere when you're hot-gluing.

Step 5:
Once the glue has set, remove the elastics and add your vellum images. Since this was my first time making the lantern, I taped my photos in place, just so I could see how it looked. I would recommend that you use scrapbooking glue dots to adhere the corners of the vellum into the frame, where the glass and backing would normally fit.

Step 6:
When your lantern is complete, insert a votive candle in a small holder into the lantern. Tea light candles look okay too, but larger votive candles make your images really glow and illuminate the table.

finished product!

Anasazi Levy Bat Mitzvah

We had the privilege today of being the event coordinators for Anasazi Levy's Bat Mitzvah at the one and only Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. What a great event it was! We had the pleasure of working with the FABULOUS Ms. Tiffany Emch and more awesome vendors and people that made our day just wonderful. Anasazi looked beautiful and she wowed her family and friends through the entire ceremony.

The guests were welcomed to the reception site with amazing food being served by the catering staff of the Ojai Valley Inn. Different stations such as carving stations, pasta, salad, pizza, and chicken stir fry filled the air with wonderful smells of delicious food. The band played, people ate and used the photo booth (very cool), and the children anxiously awaited the moment that the candy buffet opened up!

All in all, it was a wonderful event and we are counting down the days until we are back at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa and working with all the amazing people there. Enjoy a sneak peek of some of our pictures!

Ceremony/Reception: Ojai Valley Inn and Spa

Flowers: Fiore Design

Cake: LaStarr Cakes

Photo Booth: LA Photo Party

Photography: Larissa James

Band: Rhythm of the Night

Event Coordinators: All You Need Is Love Event Planning

Great Way to Use CinderBlocks???

I love this idea. Just love it. I was on yes,please and just fell in love with this awesome design. I really love how people are mixing hard textures with nature into their centerpieces. Enjoy!

Yes, Please writes:

First, using acrylic paint I painted each cinder block with the corresponding table number. It helps to trace an outline of the number in pencil first. If you’re unsure of your painting skills you can find stencils to use as a guide for your numbers. To create the arrangement, you’ll need a glass container that fits snuggly inside the center and a couple small pin frogs, or one big one. Simply place the glass container inside the middle of the cinder block. Affix the pin frogs and add water. Arrange your flowers with rustic flair and you’ve got yourself a centerpiece.

Don’t you just love how the rough cinder block plays against the delicate nature of these flowers? Gorgeous.

Orange You Glad...

One of our brides is looking to incorporate oranges in her wedding (a very specific orange that is) but it got my mind going and made me take a look at a wedding featured on Green Wedding Shoes that showcased these gorgeous flower arrangements that seemed as if they were plucked right from the backyard. I love the natural, earthy feel of the cut flowers with the bold color choices that they came in. Enjoy!

via {here}

Ahead of my time

TD's family members are all impressive gardners. Every time we are at the in-laws house, we do a tour of the back yard to see the new and improved changes they have made (and I really do mean THEY have made). I, on the other hand, come from a family that struggles to keep a ficus alive. Ultimately, when it came to picking floral designs for our wedding, I knew that I wanted to have something that could make it through my horrendous green thumb and come out looking beautiful as ever. My mother in law has always created these impressive and beautiful succulent arrangements and this spearheaded our idea of having centerpieces that were beautiful, simple, and reusable (note: TD and I were greeted when we arrived back from our honeymoon with succulents from our wedding being planted in our front garden. They are still living...no thanks to me).

As I scour through the millions of blogs, I am noticing over and over again that succulents are definitely IN and I was definitely ahead of my time. So for those brides thinking of incorporating succulents into their weddings, here are some pictorial inspirations to get your creative mind flowing!

ruffledblog

yes please

succulent love