As I mentioned in my other blog, we went Mr. Bean’s cousin’s wedding this last weekend. I want to share some photos from their wedding in hopes to inspire brides to be!

Note: Above is the “In Loving Memory Of” table complete with photos.

The Groom’s father made all the wine – isn’t that neat?

The cake was made by the Bride’s grandmother. Yes, those are fondant Calla Lilies. I can only aspire to be that great of a cake decorator.

I realized the other day that I have never made an inspiration board, so almost 7 months later I now present my actual wedding as an inspiration board. Maybe it will help inspire someone!

Have you ever made an inspiration board? Show me please! For those of you who are married, let’s see your wedding’s board.

You can see my tutorial for making my invitations here.

DIY Ceremony Programs

What you need for one program:

1 piece of cardstock
1 piece nice computer paper, printed double sided with program information, with 1/2″ cut off each side.
approximately 1 1/2 – 2 ft. of ribbon

1. Fold cardstock in half. (I used a straight edge and the back side of a butter knife to create a crease so it folded nicely.) Stamp whatever you want on the front – I used a penguin.

2. Fold program paper in half.

3. Centre program paper on cardstock and hole punch approximately 1″ from the edge in the crease of both papers.

4. Pull ribbon through the middle and tie a bow on the outside. (What I found worked best was to sit on the floor holding the program between your knees and then tying the ribbon.)

This is what I wrote on the program itself incase you are interested:

Page 1:

“The Marriage Ceremony
Uniting
Miss Bean
and Mr. Bean

<Our Wedding Date>

<Our church>
Calgary, AB

Page 2 (Next to the title, I lined up the person’s name):

Who’s who in the Zoo:

Parents of the Bride
Parents of the Groom
Grandparents of the Bride
Grandfather of the Groom

Maid of Honour
Best Man
Bridesmaid
Bridesmatron
Groomsmen

Officiant

Greeters

Ushers

Musicians

“Today we honor those who could not be with us, especially the bride’s grandparents: Grannie and Danda Bean and the Groom’s Grandparents: Grannie, Grandma and Grandpa Bean in law.

Page 3: (Note: this is a standard order of service at an Anglican church. In the appropriate place I listed names and page numbers.)

Order of Service

Processional
Gathering of the Community
Proclaimation of the Word
Lesson: Ecclesiasted 4: 9-12
Psalm: Psalm 121
Gospel: Matthew 7:21, 24-29
Message:
The Wedding
Prayers of the People
The Lord’s Prayer
The Blessing of the Marriage
The Peace
Signing of the Register
Presentation of the Couple
Recessional

Page 4:

We cannot express our gratitude enough. We are so thankful for all of the support, encouragement and prayers each one of you has given us. Your presence on one of the happiest days of our lives is a blessing!

Mr. and Mrs. Bean

Be Thous my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, They presence my light

- Be Thou My Vision, Old Irish Hymnal

There you have it! How did you make your ceremony programs? What were your inspirations?

]]> http://betrothedbean.wordpress.com/2009/03/09/simple-diy-ceremony-programs/feed/ 3 Bean hpim1539 invitation_making-006 hpim1633 hpim1634 hpim1632 http://betrothedbean.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/simple-diy-invitations/ http://betrothedbean.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/simple-diy-invitations/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 02:42:44 +0000 Bean http://betrothedbean.wordpress.com/?p=417 ]]>

As I showed you yesterday, here are our invitations – complete with instructions on how to make them! If it doesn’t make any sense, let me know and I will do my best to clarify!

To make two invitations, you will need:

• 1 sheet of black paper
• 1 sheet of red paper
• invitation wording printed on paper like this (try to use a laser printer – it turns out that much nicer):
• double sided tape or another mechanism of adhesion. (Do NOT use glue. It’s too messy. I learned the hard way!)

1. Cut the black piece of paper in half width-wise. (I used a paper cutter, but I guess an exacto knife and a ruler would work just as well.)
2. Cut 1/2″ of length and width of red paper (so it is 8″ x 10.5″) and cut it in half width-wise.
3. Cut 1″ margins off of invitation paper and cut it in half width-wise. (I suggest printing light grey lines as guidelines, unless you’re a champion.)
4. Adhere red paper onto black and invitation paper onto red. Make sure they are centred – pencil marks help with that process – so that there is 1/4″ exposed of both the red and black papers.
5. You’re done! Repeat for how many invitations you need.

Note: you can use whatever colours of paper your heart desires – the simple design makes it really attractive! (at least in my opinion.)

If you cannot read the text, here’s what it says:

Mama and Papa Bean
request the honour of your presence
at the marriage of their daughter,
Bean with Mr. Bean
<Our Wedding Date>
Two Thousand and Eight
at One Forty One in the afternoon*
<Name and Location of Church>

Reception to follow at Five Thirty
<Name and Location of Reception Venue>

If I could have changed anything, I would have put MIL and FIL Bean’s names on them. But I was being too sticky to etiquette as my parents were footing a large part of our wedding bill.

RSVP cards are similar – you print 4 cards on 1 piece of printer paper and cut so that they are 5″ x 3.75″. Then adhere the printed RSVP onto the 5.5″ x 4.25″ black piece of paper.

Again, if you cannot read the text, here is what it says:

A favour of a reply is requested by <Date to RSVP by>
M_______________________________(names)
__ of __ guest(s) will attend

One can also RSVP at <our wedding website>
The password is “password”

Please contact us with any special allergies or special needs.

I would suggest not putting the “M” because it confuses people.

The out of town map package was pretty easy to make. It consisted of three 3.75″ x 5″ pieces of paper with a map, accommodation information and information of activities to do in the area layered on a 4.25″ x 5.5″ piece of paper tied with a ribbon. If you want to make the sheets more secure, I suggest using two holes and a bow or another fastening method.

Did you make your own invitations? How did you do it?

Next up, making ceremony programs, place cards and reception schedules.

*Does anyone know why we picked this time?

• No excess decorations, with everything being clean, bold and solid colors (aka. no frondly bits & no doilys.)
• No patterns (especially floral!)
• No bows
• Only doing what is necessary – no excess “stuff” that places like the knot decide that you need
• We’re not buying anything specifically related to weddings from any kind of craft or wedding store

We came up with this theme because both of us are fairly practical people who don’t like things with super amounts of frilly-things (aka. a fair amount of Bridal-y things.) Plus, keeping things simple will be easier on our wallets and help keep us sane. I do have a tendency to get very stressy at times, so this is key

Remember to Keep it Real. (In our wedding colours nonetheless!)

Tonight the lovely ladies and I (aka. the female half of the bridal party) got together at Sister Bean’s hut to discuss bridal showers! We had a great time discussing various ideas of what should happen – I am so blessed to have such willing and helpful ladies as my “gang”.

I am not a person who really enjoys being in a spotlight for long periods of time, so we decided that one big shower (instead of a string of 50 billion showers) for everyone so that my death by embarrassment only happens once. Then, they are going to throw a more intimate lingerie shower for friends, where we have dinner, hang out and make fun of me as I get embarrassed about receiving racy items. Oh, and of course the infamous bachelorette

I’m super excited about the theme of my bachelorette party – no wild partying at clubs for me! Here’s a teaser:

Have you guessed it? I’m so excited! It’s going to be awesome!

For the huge shower the lovely ladies asked me what kind of things I would like to do. To be honest, I wasn’t sure as I haven’t really put too much thought into it. We did decide on a kitchen themed shower, where people would bring in a recipe and a utensil used in the recipe, which is sweet because Mr. Bean loves cooking and I love baking! However, something needs to happen to entertain people for the few hours and so I was given homework: the research bridal shower games that I didn’t think were lame. So, I have compiled a list of typical activities that I think would be fun. (Since there are quite a few weddings this summer, I reckon that people are going to be quite shower’d out, so I think something different might be nice!)

Idea 1: Toilet Paper Dress

I know, it’s a bit cliché, but don’t you think that it would be a lot of fun if a group of about 30 people did this? You could have 6+ dresses! Think of the competition, the thrill of being a designer of the flimsiest material ever!
 

 Idea 2: Crossing of Legs

I think this game could be a lot of fun, especially since the game can run for the duration of the whole shower as a side game. It would be pretty awesome – and I would lose right away. Well, we can’t all be perfect

Idea 3: Marshmallow Wedding Cake

This idea was found on Mrs. Caramel’s bridal shower post on weddingbee. I think it’s great – you take a bunch of marshmallows, icing, syrup, baking entities and see who can make the best looking wedding cake! It’s definitely something a bit different, it allows people to be creative and work together and you get to see what people can “cook” up.

What slightly different and entertaining games were played at bridal showers you have been to? Please share the love!