mr & mrs

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

Crafting the chair decor for our head table was a simple & inexpensive way to personalize another detail in our wedding. Using card stock, 3x5 note cards, letters printed in our 'wedding font' and twine, this project was put together quickly.

To add some detail to the flags, I measured 1" up from the center of the bottom of each piece of cardstock, then cut a straight line from each corner up to the center mark. For more stability, I affixed plain notecards to the cardstock, and glued the individual letters onto the notecards. Each letter was printed on regular white paper and I left enough space between each letter when printed so that I could cut out an area that was as close to the 3x5 card as possible.

If you look closely on the detail photos, you can see the outline of the printed paper, but from a normal distance in person, this was not noticeable. Having the notecards behind the letters also ensured that the colours in the cardstock didn't show through and the white areas popped out from the cardstock, as the weight of regular paper isn't very thick.

Using a hole punch, I placed two holes on either side of the letter and reinforced the holes from the back. Twine was woven through the openings to connect the letters into our 'mr' & 'mrs', which allowed us to use the signs as props, as well as providing the easy ability to tie them onto the backs of our beautiful cross back chairs.While I would have loved to use these chairs throughout our reception space, we couldn't afford the extra expense, so we went with some lovely fruitwood folding chairs for our guest tables. I'm so glad we splurged on having two for our sweetheart table, and were able to use them during the ceremony as well!

::side note:: trying to sit down while wearing a giant dress with t w o crinolines underneath it, on a smooth cement floor almost caused a catastrophe during our ceremony! Thank goodness my Aunts were right behind us and stopped the chair from sliding during my second attempt, but I spent the first few minutes of our wedding listening to beautiful scripture readings while 1" (literally) of my body was touching the chair! Yay yoga training & good posture for keeping me upright!!

the fateful chair. i thought ahead & the pillow did help to give me some support since i knew i wouldn't be able to reach the back of the chair, but the dress was so huge i could barely sit down at all without the chair sliding!!

doing my very best to stay upright!! also, don't those girls look lovely?! post coming soon on their outfits :)

just before we were first introduced as mr & mrs dobbins!!

I made several other signs similar to these that were used around our reception room, including 'sweets' at our dessert bar, 'cards' on the briefcase we used at our gift table, 'drinks' at the bar and 'december 1 2012' to be used at our photo booth, draped across the burlap backdrop the photographer provided. I love the idea of being able to use the 'december 1' banner to decorate at our anniversary each year!

Photo by Flashtastic Photo Booth

I've already re-used several of the signs to decorate at home and as part of the decor for a friend's wedding. The darling 'sweets' sign just might be seen if you visit the delicious Creative Crumbs in East Nashville for one of her sweet creations!

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Bridal Attire

Photo by Five By Five Photography & Design

As a budget bride, I had long thought that my 'dream' dress would be out of reach. After watching 'Say Yes To The Dress' on many a Friday evening, and scouring the pages of bridal catalogs, I knew that my tastes were slightly (!!) higher than what I thought was reasonable to spend. I was thrilled when I found this dress with a sweetheart neckline and a full, layered tulle skirt on the David's Bridal website, well under my $1,000 pricepoint. With only a five-month engagement, and a rush needed for a petite order, I made my decision on this dress VERY quickly - less than two weeks after we were engaged! While my Mom wasn't able to come down from Canada before our wedding, I was very thankful that Jermaine's Mom was able to be with me when I said yes to my dress! With an aggressive workout strategy, I took the risk of ordering my dress several sizes smaller than I was measuring at my fitting, despite strong objections from the staff. While it may not be for everyone, I knew that especially with my 5'1" frame, losing any weight would result in a drop of several dress sizes. I was thrilled when my dress arrived and needed only slight alterations - and it was too large!! I used two separate full slips underneath my skirt to increase the fullness, which also meant I didn't need to have the dress hemmed. I'm so happy with my decision and loved wearing my dress on our wedding day!

After months of searching, I found this gorgeous gold sash on an Etsy shop Love Like Style several weeks before the wedding. I love the intricate designs of the gold lace, and it ties in the back with lovely tan ribbons that cascaded down. I've worn it on several occasions since and love having that element of our wedding day to accessorize with.

Another Etsy find, la Boutique Isabelle provided my lovely lace headpiece. The simplicity of the lace was something that I loved, and I was happily surprised to discover that the ribbon ties on the headpiece exactly matched the gold sash I had ordered. I'm so glad I could find items that were unique and fit not only into the vision I had for my bridal attire, but the small $50 budget I had allocated for these items.

One evening last fall, Jermaine & I were driving through Louisville and happened to go past a bridal shop I hadn't seen before, Afterglow. I let out a very loud GASP when I saw this veil in the window and then had to quickly reassure Jermaine that he wasn't about to hit something! I went back a few weeks later with my sister-in-law and found that it was not only still there, but on sale! The veil is cathedral length, slightly off white, and has a darling ruffle along the edges. I opted to keep the extra length as I loved the extra volume it added.

 

My shoes were gold herringbone TOMS. I have been in love with these shoes since the day I saw them (several years ago!) and knew I wanted to have them for my wedding. Being stubbornly unwilling to buy ANY wedding items before we were engaged, I almost missed out on having these shoes, as they disappeared from the TOMS catalog one month before Jermaine popped the question. Imagine my delight when they reappeared one month before the wedding!! I ordered a pair immediately - and then the post office lost the package. A second pair was ordered, which DID arrive in time, so I was able to walk down the aisle in my dream shoes!

PS - how CUTE is my little flower girl and her dress?! She had matching gold TOMS too!! Love her!!

xoxo mrs dobbins

J&J

 Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

I'm still in LOVE with these yarn letters that I made for our wedding. Super easy, almost free, and a lovely pop of green in our cocktail hour space. I simply traced the letters and ampersand out on some thick cardboard, then cut the shapes out. The 'J' letters were quite easy to wrap with the yarn (which was leftover from the jars I had made), only needing a small amount of glue on the backside to hold the ends.

The ampersand was another story!! I actually had to cut out the small portion in the middle, and then made another cut along the top left side of the loop to make it easier to line the yarn up. After wrapping with a mixed beige yarn and gluing the ends underneath, I took a popsicle stick to join the pieces back together along the back side, tucked the ends of the popsicle stick into the yarn and glued everything in place.

We have these fun letters up on our mantle now - along with several other wedding goodies!! They're another reminder of the wonderful day we had celebrating our love for each other.

xoxo mrs dobbins

Our Decor - Advice Cards, Guest Book, Card Briefcase & Place Cards

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

The advice cards I made were a fun, easy, CHEAP idea from Pinterest. Using an online template I simply used cardstock to print the cards out and we had a colourful box nearby for guests to put their completed cards in. We had SO much fun reading these cards after the wedding and seeing similar themes and responses come up...apparently people were really ready for us to get married!! So good to have these as a keepsake as well!

To contain our cards and bring some colour to our gift table, I took a $4 briefcase from Goodwill and gave it a quick facelift. Some burlap covered the bottom and a 'cards' sign made from cardstock and twine dressed things up (and I hid a few dryer sheets in the pocket for the month leading up to the wedding, to get rid of the musty smell it had from being out of use for so long). One of my favourite parts about this briefcase was that at the end of the night, we just had to close it up and everything was nicely contained inside, with no worries about losing anything!

Jermaine & I both grew up loving Sade, and even danced to her song "By Your Side" for our first dance, so using her albums Promise & Stronger Than Pride, along with The Ray Charles Singers' Something Special for Young Lovers, as our guestbook was a perfect fit! We found scratched up vinyl copies at yard sales and used book stores, and bought vinyl display frames to hold each record - this was one wedding errand that Jermaine really enjoyed!! With scrapbook paper lining each frame to add some colour, we put out several metallic Sharpies at each record to do the trick. As vinyl collectors, we now have beautiful art work to display on our walls among our featured records, and can see a daily reminder of the amazing family members and friends we have in our lives.

For the name cards, I knew I wanted something simple that would make a larger visual statement when together. Using cardstock, I printed out each guest's name as they RSVP'd 'yes', and then punched a hole in the corner, either above or below the name. Using spare edging from the burlap table runners I made, I took two or three short pieces and tied them through the hole to add a bit of interest. Clothespins held each name to some twine we hung in one corner of our cocktail hour space and I loved how they looked! Our friends also made a game out of clipping clothespins to the backs of guests' shirts or dresses all night, and at one point I had about 7 on my sash!!

What fun ideas have you found for your decor?

xoxo mrs dobbins

Centerpieces

For our centerpieces, we used several found & recycled items to make something beautiful. Jermaine & I love spending hours in used book stores, including McKay's in Nashville. They have 'free' bins outside filled with books that have seen better days, so over several months we collected books on each trip, in addition to buying several beautiful hard cover editions. While many of the books were beautiful, there were others with spines falling apart, so we stripped those ones of their covers and turned them into something new. I love the way the pages came together in different shades of cream to blend with the muslin tablecloths and burlap runners. Each table had several stacked books with glass jars containing candles and flowers. We even posted specific books at several tables like How To Control Your Teenager, dog training titles, Harry Potter and Robert Jordan titles! We really enjoyed incorporating our love of books into our decor.

We used recycled glass for our candle holders & vases. There were lots of pickle, sauce & dressing jars in my kitchen over the past year, and several friends joined in with collecting their household items. I added different shades of yarn & hot glued them, which was a simple, quick and inexpensive way to dress up the glass. We used electric candles in many of the jars to add a warm glow to our reception space which looked wonderful all evening!

Other items used around our reception space and at the head table were from my home, including photos, birds, clocks, dried flowers Jermaine had given me, and even an Instamatic camera that was in my closet at home in Canada - purchased by my Mom in the 70's! It was wonderful to incorporate so many personal items and really made our identity shine through.

My Mom's Instamatic camera from the 70's made an appearance at our head table!

 

I'm so pleased with the way our table decor came together!! With a little planning, it was easy to look ahead to collect the items we were looking for, and adding other personal touches really made our reception space feel like a celebration at home with family & friends.

xoxo
mrs dobbins

Flower Girl & Ring Bearer

We were thankful to be able to use the ring pillow and flower basket from Jermaine's brother's wedding for our flower girl & ring bearer (his brother's son!). I wanted to add our colours to the basket & pillow, and luckily a little bit of yarn added the touches I was looking for.

Our flower basket got a touch of orange yarn to add a rustic element to it. I filled the basket with tissue paper flowers, as our flower girl decided she was ok just holding the basket and not throwing anything. We were so excited to include our good friend's little girl, and she did a wonderful job at the wedding!!

The ring pillow had some green yarn wrapped around it, which matched the bridesmaids' dresses. Our ring bearer was our nephew, normally a tiny tornado of energy. He took his job so seriously on the wedding day, and we were so proud of his ability to stay still and stand up with the big guys!

These touches were quick and easy to do, and really made these items fit in with our rustic theme. As the yarn was removable, it also allowed us to temporarily change the look (and was super cheap!) without altering the borrowed basket & pillow! We were so happy to make our wedding a true family affair!

xoxo
mrs dobbins

ps - I should also mention that their outfits were AWESOME! Our ring bearer already had the grey suit he wore, which was perfect for my nephew! We found our flower girl's dress for $17 on clearance at Target, and it had the sweetest flowers around the hem! Her shoes were TOMS (like the rest of the bridal party!) and we both had cute gold ones on - LOVE!! It felt like she was my little mini me that day with her long curls too!! We're so thankful for these little ones :)

It's Official!!

Hello!

Photos by Five By Five Photography & Design

After a whirlwind year, I'm ending 2012 as officially Mrs. Dobbins!! With a completely DIY, very rustic wedding on December 1, I've had lots of questions about how I made specific items we used. 

Cakes by the amazing Abby at Creative Crumbs

Cakes by the amazing Abby at Creative Crumbs

While I definitely did NOT have the time or energy to provide any further instructions or photos during the planning process, I'm hoping that posting here will help with the wedding-withdrawal, which I'm anticipating will kick in once the holidays are finished!! 

Hopefully something you see here will be helpful as you craft away to make your own day magical!! 

xoxo
mrs dobbins