breathe deep, keep calm and carry on

bah. i'm having one of those weeks with the wedding. i'm altogether too stressed about the whole thing. mostly because i am letting the idea of what the wedding should be take over. you know what i mean. i have been looking at the pretty wedding blogs and i think they are doing my head in.

mostly, it's other people invisible judgment that i fear. we are not doing a sit down dinner and i think a part of me feels like the guests who are traveling a long way are getting short changed. ridiculous right? they are grown up people and they knew all the details before they booked their travel and RSVP'ed. still, the expectations are doing a number on my poor brain.

i think sandy's family, in their well meaning, aren't helping. they keep sending me ideas, which instead of seeming helpful seems to me to be judge-y 'are you sure you don't want this', 'shouldn't you just book this', 'it might not be good if you don't blah, blah, blah'. you get the idea.

i am aware that most of this will be my own insecurity about the wedding twisting innocent suggestions into judgment. still, it's making me angry and ready for the wedding to be over. raaaaaaahhhhhh!

sigh. ok, next week will be better and it will all be ok. after all we are having delish antipasto, canapes, lots of drinks, cakes and pies and desserts and cheese, glorious cheese. not to mention a photo booth, a friends and family band, boules games on the lawn... oh yeah and sandy and i getting married for fucks sake.

ok, i feel better now.

however my bank balance is still recovering from the battering it got on the weekend. after dragging sandy out suit shopping (he was going to wear shorts for our garden party style wedding, but had been fretting over whether he should get a suit). we walked into hugo boss 'just to have a look' and left an hour later much, much poorer. but, but, but he looked so good in the suit that i actually got all teary and i could tell he felt amazing and confident and 'groomy'. so we had to get it. and as i told him as he hyperventilated down regents st 'it's a suit for life! not just for the wedding'. ahhh, it's not all about the dress is it?


yum

blog love

ahhh, the blog land is a magical place sometimes. sarah just sent me the link to these, i just might buy them for the sandy man for the wedding day.

hair

so, i know this has been featured all over the place of late, i found it here, and i have decided (after a very successful trial at home) that this will be my wedding hair-do.

as i will be doing the old hair and makeup my self - i wanted something easy and pretty that would stay without too much fuss. i think this is a winner!

what are/were your hair plans for the big day?

friends and family band spectacular

as my parents, and many of our friends, are musicians. we are putting together a friends and family band for the day of the wedding. the song list goes like this:

heart of gold - neil young
soul meets body - death cab
jackson - johnny cash and june carter
swimming song - loudon wainwright iii
there is a light that never goes out - the smiths
modern nature - sondre lerche

i'll be busting out the uke, and singing, sandy will sing and get on the guitar and hopefully it will be fun and magical... a bit like this! well, we can dream!

The pop-up invite how-to

ok folks. i know i've been a bit slack on the how-to front but better late than never no?

here is part 1:

what you'll need - crafting: scissors, metal ruler, exacto knife, cutting mat, double sided sticky tape.

what you'll need - paper: your card - we found that an A4 piece of card that folded up rather than out worked best, your pop up piece - design it so that it fits inside your chosen card and leave a tab across the bottom to stick into the card.

step 1:


on the front side of your card mark half way along the length of the card - do this on both sides.

step 2:


line your ruler up to the two marks you have made - this should be the halfway mark of your card. lightly score along the ruler - don't press too hard.

step 3:


fold along your scored line. you now have your outer card.

step 4:


now it's time to cut out your pop-up insert. go slow and try to keep your cuts fluid.


step 5:


you should now have your fully cut out insert. make sure you leave a tab at the bottom to fix to insert into the card.

step 6:


lightly score along the join between the bottom of your cut out and your tab.

step 7:


fold along your score line.

step 8:


measure out some double sided tape and stick along the bottom tab of your insert.

step 9:


stick your insert into your card. finding the right spot may take some time - so do lots of tests before you settle on your final placement.

step 10:


cut out a small length of card and fold as shown. the length of the card will be determined by the placement of your insert within your outer card so again, this may take some time to work out.

attach small squares of double sided tape to the outer sides of the end tabs.

step 11:


stick one end of your tab onto the back of your insert.

stick the other end onto the inside of your outer card like so:


this is another area where you will need to play around a bit. ideally the joining piece of card slopes down slightly when you look at it side on. this means everything lays perfectly flat when the card is closed and when you open it...

Ta da!


so that's all really. just be patient - in between figuring out the pop up and finalizing the design elements we probably did about 15 mock up cards. it was pretty fiddly stuff - but all the testing out meant that when everything was finalized we got them done pretty quickly.

good luck!

bad, bad blogger

ok, i have been lazy and bad.

i could tell you all that i've been so busy planning the wedding that i just didn't have time to blog.

lies, all lies.

i have been working - a lot. travelling. knitting - seriously - here is proof in snood form...



BUT! to redeem myself i have done the step by step how to and will upload very soon - sarah - i'm sorry it took so long!

oh man, i wish i was this patient!