Updates on Various Projects!

I've been doing a lot lately. A. Lot. My blog tends to be the quietest when I'm the most busy. I've gotten to a point though that many of my latest projects are wrapping up, so I figured I'd share a peek into what I've been up to.

1. Wedding photos for my brother.

My brother got married the first weekend of April, and I found myself not only part of the wedding party but also the photographer! To be honest I felt excited and privileged to wear both hats -getting to be the one who got to capture every special moment for my brother and my new sister-in-law (who I adore) was a joy. I recently finished editing the photos (I did editing in stages so I finished the final set of photos recently) and love how they turned out.

Here's a few of the photos I captured:

(the bride getting ready)

(exiting the LDS temple where they were married)

 (the bride is from Argentina and her parents weren't able to come, so we called them on Skype so they could share the moment!)

(My parents saying hello!)

I'll be updating my photography website soon with some of my favorites :-)

2. The wedding reception itself was something I planned - collaborating with my aunts and one cousin who was excited to help out. I got a lot of help, which I'm very grateful for - and is the reason that the reception was as rich and beautiful as it ended up being.

We had extended family come into town to help us set us the gym- here's how it looks as we were starting:

And here's how it looked as we almost finished with the decorating:

 (my aunt came up with the idea for the ceiling - it was beautiful! It was a lot of sewing for my mom hahaha but so worth it!!)

Now I will go through and explain what I created for the reception.

First of all, there are two themes we carried through - the bride picked the wedding colors which we used (cream, peach, and green), and I decided the unifying theme of the reception would be paper rosettes. They feel very spring to me, especially in those colors.

The largest collection of rosettes I put together for the reception were in the backdrop I created for the food table. People don't often decorate around food tables in my experience, but I feel that's a missed opportunity! So I created a frame out of PVC pipe (painted of course) and then mounted panels of layered giant paper rosettes (which I made and spray painted to match). I was nervous since I didn't get to test the backdrop before I had to put it up for the reception (it was a one-shot deal), but it came together perfectly and was an excellent and unique touch.

I also created two paper rosettes in the green and peach for the tables to be mixed into the bouquets. Here's a photo I took with my phone that I sent to my aunt who planned the flowers, so she could see what I had in mind:

My aunt ended up doing an AMAZING job with her flower arrangements, they went really well with the rosettes. No one got a good picture of the rosettes in the vases, this is probably the best one I found of what was taken:

Also, I bought the table vases (they're actually beer glasses) second hand for really cheap :-)

Another big project was the backdrop for behind the wedding cake. I didn't want the photos of them cutting the cake to show the ugly wall right behind them, so I created a backdrop out of leftover satin fabric in cream with a sheer green curtain overlaid. I bought a wooden picture frame (took out the glass) and a wooden "D" and painted them, then wrapped the frame in cream ribbon and outlined the D with decorative pearl stickers. I then created a giant PVC frame for the curtains and picture frame to hang from. The idea was originally to hang white lights between the layer of satin and the sheer curtain, however, we ran out of lights so I improvised with strips of sheer shimmering tulle and spotlights placed at the base of the backdrop. My cousin refinished a dresser we used as a cake table for the reception, but I had no idea it was as wide as it was or I would have made my backdrop wider (still, it worked out fine):

Although I wasn't able to take pictures during most of the reception (due to being part of the wedding party - some relatives were nice enough to take candid shots of the reception for us, which I've been using in this post), I did grab my camera for a couple of pictures of the couple cutting the cake:

You may also notice that I had a wedding photo printed to put on the cake table/dresser as well :-)

I also made arrangements with my mom's friend (who owns a reception planning business) to have us use a set of panels and two pergolas. We used one pergola in the center of the panels for the reception line. Here the couple is showing that space off - also, here are additional paper rosettes I made:

We also wanted a photo booth  for the guests - I made the freestanding sign for it (my mom found a picture of sign she like and I used it for inspiration):

You can't see it very well in the picture below, but I made a paper rose tree for the gift table that turned out beautifully. Also, we got one of the wedding photos I printed on canvas - it turned out gorgeous! It was definitely a show-stopper (everyone thought I'd faked the photo someone with my Photoshop expertise, I guess that's a compliment to both my Photoshop abilities and my photography!):

While no one at the reception got a good photo of my paper rose tree, I did take one photo myself of it after I finished it:

It was just a snapshot to show my aunts what I wanted on the table, but at least its something.

Unfortunately, I don't have any at-home photos to show this off better - it's the cupcake stand that my mom and I came up with. We were so proud of this creation! It's a candle holder I painted silver and we attached plates to - it was beautiful and unique. A lady at the second-hand store even stopped in the aisle when she saw us piecing the idea together and commented on how creative it was:

There are no pictures at all of a couple of things- I painted a special frame with two openings for the guest sign-in table. The frame has a mat with two openings - for the one opening I created a special design using one of the wedding photos and for the other I printed a poem. Here's the design I created from the wedding photo (the bride and groom met in Argentina):

Also I designed the napkins, the invitations/announcements, and the thank you cards that will be mailed.

TA-DAH!!! - that's the reception! It took a lot of planning and hard work, plus I filled a room in my house with paper and piping and spray paint and dishes. . . and my life with chaos. But it was so much fun to plan and to put together. And it looked beautiful. I'm so grateful for my family, both immediate and extended, for all the help they were!!

And guess what single lady caught the bride's bouquet? ;-)

(hint - that's me standing with the bride!)

3. With Sakura Con over (and photo editing DONE), I have recently turned my focus to updating my Etsy shop. This includes not only updating the inventory to include my new prints but a new format for the photos I'm using in my listings - and lots of new product photos. This project is still ongoing, I'll post more about it once it's completed so I can show it off :-) Besides, this post is plenty long-enough as-is. . .


~m.d.