Turkey {Wedding} Cake Toppers

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Aug 042012
 
I found a set of turkey cake toppers on etsy that I loved, but they were $80 and only 2 inches tall. I’m all about supporting artists and all that, but… $80 freaking dollars? And I wanted them to look like my turkeys.So I made my own. It was my first attempt working with clay since… middle school?
I think they turned out pretty cute!

Mikey wants a fedora so Mr. Turkey got a hat

Wedding Guest Post: ChiWei from One Dog Woof

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May 272012
 
Hello everyone!  Wedding season is in full swing and I’m so happy to be here on Chicken Scratch sharing a little bit about my own wedding from almost 5 years ago!  
Alecia wanted us to talk about the DIY aspects to our weddings, and I feel like I spent my entire engagement in front of the tv working on crafts for the wedding, but I don’t seem to have a whole lot of pictures to show for it!  So we’ll just take a quick tour of the DIY aspects with the pictures that I do have :-)
Drew and I got married at Locust Grove, the Samuel Morse House (yes, that Morse guy) back in 2007, and we were lucky to have had a gorgeous day to get hitched on the beautiful grounds of the estate.  Since there wasn’t an area meant to hold seating and have a focus point, we bought ourselves a wrought iron archway from a local flea market to use as our altar and had flower petals strewn along the “aisle”.  That archway is now in our backyard and will be holding up the beans in my garden this year!
Our guest book was a coffee table book of the Hudson Valley, detailing the journey of the Hudson River from its beginnings in the Adirondacks all the way to New York Harbor.  I wanted something that I can display and read and enjoy, and our friends could sign on pages that talked about favorite hikes or spots from around town.  Plus, if we ever moved, this would be a souvenir in more ways than one.  Most people ended up signing the inside cover, but it was a treat to look through the book afterwards to find the odd love note on a random page.
We didn’t have any flowers at the ceremony other than the bouquets, since we were in a garden anyways.  For the reception, the hall had high ceilings, so I felt we needed tall centerpieces to balance out the architecture.  We ended up finding semi-matching vases at HomeGoods for $10 each (score!), filled them with lemons bought wholesale, and topped it off with an arrangement from the florist.  The arrangement for the cocktail hour was of the same style, but had flowers in water instead of lemons filling the vase.
One of my favorite creative bursts was for the menu.  We had 4 courses for dinner, so I made little origami mouth thingies for each place setting. (didn’t we used to play M.A.S.H on these things?)  I have no idea what these mouths are actually called.  Anyways, each side listed a course, and you could open up the flap to see the description for the course.  I made one, wrote on it, deconstructed it to where the words ended up on a flat sheet of paper, designed a template in Microsoft Word and had a bunch printed up at the local print shop.  Then I sat home and folded them all into the little mouth shapes while watching a Law and Order marathon.  The overall vision was for these guys to sit on each plate like lotus flowers, so I bought gold-wrapped kisses to use as the flower center.
The other creative burst I had was for our favors.  Our wedding cake had cupcakes on it, so each guest’s favor was a matching cupcake packaged in a chinese take-out box and wrapped in coordinating ribbon.  I made up little tags for each one that had the Chinese character for “love”, as well as a short thank you note. 
The rest of the table setting included some simple tealights, rose petals from the two-toned roses featured in my bouquet, and simple table numbers that I had printed on cardstock and displayed on picture holders from Target.
That’s it!  Overall, the wedding was just a casual, festive party with good food, good friends and good music.  We tried to keep everything simple and elegant while incorporating our personalities, since details do matter, but not as much as the reason we were all there in the first place!
To see more from our special day, check out what we ate (since food was the majority of our budget), and how I ended up wearing my mother’s wedding outfit!
Thanks Alecia for this wonderful opportunity and Best Wishes for your wedding and your marriage!  May you be the perfect blushing bride and live happily ever after!
Thanks so much for sharing your awesome ideas. I especially loved the tall lemon-filled centerpieces. I hope you guys are enjoying this series and your long weekend! Thanks to bendryl and computer hiccups that’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll have some really fun stuff coming up in the next few weeks so make sure you come back!
Previous Posts from the Wedding Bells series:

Wedding Guest Post: Thrifty China and more

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May 202012
 
Hi, I’m Mary from Sweetwater Style! 
I am thrilled to be guest posting on Chicken Scratch!
I just love Alecia’s lovely blog don’t you?
Here at Sweetwater….I truly believe that “style is the perfection of your point of view”!
and
I am always dedicated to finding that point of view without spending a lot of money!
Alecia wants to highlight DYI ways to lower the cost of a wedding without sacrificing the style!
I am with her 100%….besides….
I think it makes the whole wedding “journey” so much more meaningful to use creativity instead of cash!!
Are YOU planning a wedding?
Then….I suggest you get yourself to the thrift shop!
Two summers ago, our daughter got married in June and our nephew in August.
The planning and preparations were almost more fun than the big days!

Both weddings and receptions were held at my brother and sister-in-law’s beautiful Willow Ridge Gardens.

 But, you ask, “What’s that got to do with Good Will?

Notice the stack of plates and the silver urn in this photo! 

Pretty….and elegant don’t you think?

We did our research….

  • the cost of china rental for the two weddings….for almost 400 guests…at least $400…Yikes!
  • OR…..paper products-less expensive….but not very elegant!

Soooo…..we began buying up lovely plates and glassware from  GOOD WILL, THRIFT STORES and GARAGE SALES!

We had RULES!

  • Nothing could cost more than a dollar… 
  • We needed dinner plates, salad plates, wine glasses and drinkware…
  • Everything should be basic white or cream colored….
  • Every piece should be something we might want to keep and use later…. 
Here are just a few of the great pieces we found!
The china worked wonderfully for the buffet and casual styled wedding!

Much better than floppy paper plates to carry around!

For the more formal sit down dinner….it was fun to coordinate the china on the tables.

Every table was unique and lovely!
We also used my collection of thrift store silver for serving and decorative accents!
I think everything looks better on silver…don’t you?  

Here are all those silver trays put to good use at another wedding for the cupcake service!

Now for the best part!
Both those Brides from two years ago split up the china pieces they liked….
and they have enough lovely place settings to use at almost any gathering for years to come!

In fact….I might just have to borrow some of this from the Sweetwater daughter the next time I have a big party!

I have enjoyed sharing our fun way to save money on wedding china…and I hope it inspires you to get yourself out there shopping the thrift stores!
Remember….as you are in the midst of all the planning and preparation….be sure to enjoy the process!  The day will be gone in a heartbeat….but the memories will be forever!

I would love for you to hop over to Sweetwater Style and see some of the other wedding themed posts I have done!

Thanks to Alecia for letting me share with you….
Thanks so much Mary for sharing your awesome idea!

Don’t miss the other post in my DIY Wedding series:
More than a Guest Book

Would you like your wedding post featured? Email me @
ChickenScratchNY (at) gmail.com

Wedding Bells: A Call for Guest Posters

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Apr 242012
 

It’s (mostly) official!

After being engaged since October 2011, I’ll be getting hitched in October 2012!

I imagine it’ll look something like this

Still working out the major details (like the date) but it’s gonna be a DIY festival of autumn craftyness.
We found a gorgeous barn for the reception and we’re going supper casual with the food, most likely catered by a local barbecue place.

Now I want to hear about your weddings!
If you’re interested in being featured here on Chicken Scratch drop me a line at:

ChickenScratchNY (at) gmail.com

I’m looking for anything wedding related, especially DIY.
If you didn’t blog about your wedding feel free to share something you think made your day special and unique!
If you haven’t had a wedding and still want to play along share something you’d like for your wedding.

I’d like to post one a week until my wedding in October and I’ll add all the features to a special Pinterest board.

Thanks! I hope to hear from you soon!