Marriage Posters

Marriage Poster, Contracts, and Witness Certificates are a great way to involve your guests and show them that they are there to bear to witness to your ceremony because they are the most important people in your lives.  A nice poster placed strategically at the entrance way to your ceremony can also serve as a guest book.

I also think that these certificate-like or poster-style items create both a family heirloom for all couples but a document to formalize same-sex marriages in states where there is no legal document to otherwise do so.  Jesse and I plan to create one that fits into our theme and invitation/stationary suite.  Guests can sign that they witnesses our wedding.  Then when marriage equality is achieved in Minnesota, we can just go down to City Hall and have ourselves an intimate affair.  The fact that we will get to do another wedding-related activity in the future is my silver-lining on being able to get legally married.  Two weddings!  Two accent color-schemes!  Two dress--wait, four dresses!  I'm a little out of control about it, like most things wedding. 

There a ton of really great poster ideas out there that are amazingly creative.  Here is a simple one from lovliday on Etsy.

                                                                      Source: etsy.com via Alyson on Pinterest

This is a cute idea using thumbprints.  It's from one of my all-time favorite weddings on 100 Layer Cake.  More photos can be seen here:

                                      Source: 100layercake.com via Alyson on Pinterest

The genius behind Rifle Paper, Co. has had various wedding posters show up on blogs in the past.  Here is one of her delightful creations:

                                                         Source: riflemade.squarespace.com via Alyson on Pinterest

These witness certificates slash guest books can be easily created using Word even and a few graphics from my favorite place for inspiration The Graphics Fairy.  Or you can ask a friend who draws to draw you up picture that you can scan and have printed out by a local print company.  In Minneapolis, the company I consult for has had a great experience with 7 Corners Printing on Snelling Ave. in St. Paul, MN.  And they are union to boot so if you are hoping to have a socially conscious wedding that values sustainable working conditions, you can feel good using them.  They also can help you with putting together your poster if you would like. 

BHLDN Changes Language Immediately

                                                               Source: bhldn.com via Alyson on Pinterest

Update:

Within hours of writing BHLDN to let them know that the following language on this item could be offensive to some, they changed it! Makes me love them even more! The language changed from "One for him and one for her...as it should be," to "One for him and one for her...how lovely." Though their intent was surely never malicious, language is important and it's awesome that they changed it. How lovely.

Former Post:

BHLDN, Antropologie's new Wedding Line, has just launched an amazing line of decor items. Some of them are perfect for using in your wedding. Others are great for you registry. One of the items they are selling just plain offended me. The Sweetheart Forks are a set of forks with the engraving, "Bride" and "Groom" on them. Super cute. It would be awesome if you could choose 1 Bride, 1 Groom, 2 Brides, 2 Grooms, but I think we still have a few more years before that it is a reality. Disappointing but true. I'm realist. However realist I am I still expected a little more from Anthropologie when they posted the following description under this item:

"One for him and one for her… as it should be. A hand stamped vintage set of two from Woodenhive."

I think that they were intending to make a statement about equality within a marriage, as in, each spouse has his or her own fork, but it comes off as an anti-same-sex marriage statement. I've written to them about it and will post their response as soon as I get it.

Lightbulb Terrariums

A neat little Instructable post from arte.sano with details and links on how to build various lightbulb terrariums and vases. I'm exploring alternative place cards for my wedding and planters for the Juliane James Place grounds and came upon this link.

                                                              Source: instructables.com via Alyson on Pinterest

Ideas for use include:

• v. dangerous but highly stylish mobile for over crib
• hanging from above during a nature/sciencey wedding
• place cards for a party via a cool apothecary-inspired label
• gifts for Everyone you know
• craft project for kids old enough to know to walk away from and not touch broken glass

Any additional ideas for lightbulb terrariums?

Marriage

Unknown Source of poster.  Posted by Olympic swimmer Matthew Mitcham's Facebook.

Pinterest

I have been posting a few pins from Pinterest lately without explaining how Fantastic it is!  Pinterest is a great way to catalog images and then easily upload them to your blog for further commenting.  It's a much faster way to comment on all the lovelies you interact with through you wedding searches.  For those getting married it is a Must.  You can put together your inspirations for floral, dresses, rings, you name it into their own boards.  Tons of create people are pinning their inspirations too, including a myriad of wedding professionals.  You can easily repin their pins and the source comes right along automatically.  It's like magic!

Check out my Pinterest here.  I'm still new to it so check back often to see new boards and to see new additions as I fill up the boards.

Living Wedding Decor

My amazing wedding planner Laura Mullen, of Laura Mullen Event Design pinned this image on her Pinterest recently and I just had to hunt down a few similar structures that this would work with and brainstorm on how something so lovely could fit into a wedding.

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Laura on Pinterest

I think that this (potentially edible) decor could be amazing for flanking the sides of a ceremony area.  A couple could purchase or make the structures and put them on either side of the ceremony space.  Scooping up an old book or hardware store display unit on Craigslist might work well.  Keywords to use while searching could include: bookstore, "book store", book display, store display, hardware store, mercantile...and other suggestions?

I'm thinking it could be a mini and moveable version of this fantastic living wall installation at the Smog Shoppe in Culver City, CA:

Image from Sitting in a Tree Events

I've seen this wall in various blog postings about weddings at the Smog Shoppe and never realized until just now that they might just have happened to use the same Woolly Pockets detailed in the last issue of ReadyMade magazine.  The article in the last issue of ReadyMade is about how to construct a taller, privacy fence on top of an existing fence but it hits on how great they are.  And Oh Joy! has this lovely compilation  of Woolly Pockets images just ready for the reposting here.  I'm going to do some brainstorming on ways to use Wooly Pockets in weddings for a future post.

Potion Signature Drinks

How AMAZING would it be to serve your guests your signature drink it little potion bottles like this, but bigger.

When I was exploring using different bottles for favors and how to get our response cards sent back to us as objects not in envelopes, I came upon these 8.5 oz. corked bottles from Specialty Bottle Co. that would be Perfect for using for a potion signature drink.  They cost about twice as much as a rental would for glasses but add a flair that makes it worth it.  Plus these would easily keep their value and could be resold on eBay or Craigslist.  Or you could go in with other brides to purchase them. 

These fabric sticky tags from local Minnesota Etsy store KawaiiGoodies could be customized to run the height of the bottle with your initials on it.  Or you could get some of these great tags from Kibbles on Artfire that I used for our Save the Dates (in a larger version) and custom stamp your own wording on them.  You can purchase different font alphabet stamp kits here at Jo-Ann Fabrics, Michaels, and Etsy.

Source: justbesplendid.tumblr.com via Alyson on Pinterest