Starbucks + Good Deed = Great Day

Better late than never.

 I wrote this post the day this happened, but for some reason never published it. 

Until now.

 Up for a long drive this morning, as in 5 AM morning, so I stop by Starbucks and feed my addiction. 

The line is long, but I don't mind waiting especially since the fall drinks are out. YUM!

I get to the window and the lady informs me the car in front of me paid for my order. 

Have you ever had this happen? The endorphin release is phenomenal!!!  Instantly I was über happy!! 

I loved the feeling so much I said, "Well, then I will pay for the car behind me!" with a huge smile. 

No lie, I was cheesin. 

I haven't been able to shake this tremendously happy feeling all day! 

I mean something so simple completely took someone who despises mornings, aka me, and made it one of the happiest moments. Lol

So I encourage you to go out and do what the girl in front of me did - in some form or fashion.

Anonymous RSVP Cards

I saw on a blog, 2 years ago so please forgive me for not remembering, where they had secretely numbered all of their RSVP cards.

It is such a pain addressing return RSVP cards with the individuals address. Most people, like us, stick to just putting the mailing address for the RSVP card and return postage. I saw on a blog where a girl had done just that. She then received a few RSVP cards with no names and no return addresses. They had just RSVPed they would be attending. Odd. Once her RSVP deadline approached, she had to call all the people who had "not" RSVPed to see if they were coming or not, and see who the anonymous attendees were. 

Her solution: Using a black light pen, or Invisible Ink, to number each RSVP card.

I didn't think much of it, but figured it wouldn't hurt to utilize it. Plus I wanted to see if it worked.

It worked.

We received an RSVP card in the mail today, but it was just marked as not attending. Ok people, who is not attending? We have a huge list of people and I don't want to call the wrong person when the mailing deadline arrives and hassle them for their RSVP. There is a line for your name, use it! haha

When you look at the back of the invite with the naked eye, this is all you see.

Lucky me, I used the black-light pen! I shined the little black-light tip to see the number, looked at our list and figured out who the anonymous non-attendee was based on the number. 

Genius.

SO, for those planning a wedding and wanting clever/unique RSVPs - or simply want to track your RSVPs - get the black-light (Invisible Ink) pen! :-]

You can also add my little caption: P.S If you do not RSVP, bring a chair and a sandwich

Seems to have worked well so far! :-]

I bought two at the time from DealExtreme

http://www.dealextreme.com/p/invisible-ink-pen-88

I paid $2.78. Not bad.

Alana XoXo

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 18}: Bridesmaid Attire & Dilemmas

         With 53 days until our wedding day, we have had a fairly smooth wedding planning process. We have been engaged for over 2 years now, 2 years and 6 months by the time the wedding rolls around. 2 years allows a lot of time for malfunctions and dilemmas. Luckily, the only blimp we have had so far is the guest list.....Until today.

Thanks to Pinterest I fell in love with the eclectic/mismatched bridesmaid dresses.

Wearing boots was a must - the isle everyone walks down is a stone path, ankles would most definitely be twisted trying to walk down in heels - or someone would end up tripping or falling on there face. HAHA

Also, with the theme being Country Boy Meets City Girl, our wedding being outdoors, and living in Texas - boots just seemed to fit. :-]

Since our wedding is in the fall, we deemed a champagne color would be perfect for the dresses. This way we can take advantage of the bold colored flowers and foliage that fall blesses us with. The deep maroons, golds, oranges and browns would contrast wonderfully with the champagne dresses for a nice pop of color. 

All the bridesmaids went through David's Bridal to order their dresses to ensure the same color since I have bridesmaids all over the state and country! Each bridesmaid went to the store, picked their dress, then shared with the other girls to make sure no one bought a repeat dress. All the dresses came in during their 4-6 week time alottment. 

Audrey and Megan went to pick up their dresses together and try them on to ensure they were the correct dresses with no blemishes.

Audrey texts me a picture of them in the dresses - WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! Megan, my youngest bridesmaid, being 16 years old, has on Danni's style dress!!! I immediately text back to them that Audrey's looks great, but Megan's is the wrong dress overall. 

The cotton sateen dress we had originally ordered for Megan was a little long and I had agreed to take her to get a bubble hem put into it in order to bring it above her knee like the rest of the girls. The dress she text me was sateen with a bubble hem already. Megan texted, "Does the bottom look different to you? I feel like we don't need to hem it." 

I immediately picked up the phone furious. I know, mistakes happen. BUT this dress took 6 weeks to come in. We are about 7 weeks away from my wedding. Get my dilemma? 6 weeks for the delivery of the CORRECT dress puts us ONE WEEK before the wedding. Which means we then have ONE WEEK to get the alterations needed. 

The manager apologizes stating she would get the problem fixed and would ensure alterations were taken care of in time for the wedding. I then have to stress to the manager that alterations are out of her control. Since we are getting the bubble-hem, David's Bridal can not legally perform the alteration because they can not alter the "style" of the dress. SOOOO, we must get the dress delivered and get it to a seamstress who CAN do the bubble-hem we intended on. Unfortunately, the David's Bridal manager can not tell our outside seamstress to go quicker because THEY messed up. She needs her 2 weeks and I am not paying a rush fee, because THEY screwed up. And I am not sacrificing the bubble hem either. HPMH!

I could tell the manager was annoyed with me, but I didn't care - they messed up and I have every right to be upset, especially with our wedding being pretty darn close. I really wanted to call the lady out on her rude tone saying, "Sorry, have I inconvenienced YOU!? Is this a bad time for YOU?!" Do your job right = happy customer = problem solved.  But I bit my tongue, remembering my days of working in customer service. If you know me, that was VERY hard to do. *Pat myself on back*

Deep breath.

Then about an hour later my sister texts me. My Maid of Honor gift to her was a new pair of cowgirl boots. 

Her tiny size of 5 1/2 is not in store, but luckily another store has it! Should take 7-10 days to come in since its a local store that has it, otherwise it could've taken 7 weeks to get from the Tony Lama factory. Uh oh. BUT they have it at the next store, sweet! 

I call my Seester: "Hey! Did your boots come in yet? I want to see a picture!" 

Seester: "No they haven't, but they should've. I am calling up there right now. Ill text you. Love you, bye" 

Seester: A little bit later "So basically a store said they had them, but then called and said they didn't [after we paid and left, but no one called to tell us] and they forgot. So now they're calling another store tomorrow and going to find them. He's making it his 'first priority'" - "He promised to have them by next week, because 'the weekend don't count'"

Me: "Weekend don't count? Wow. That's promising" - How about weekend "doesn't", "does not" count? Maybe? No? Ok.

Luckily, these are all problems that can be solved. However, they are a wee-bit stressful none-the-less. Once the dress and boots are in, safe and sound, I will breath easier. Until then, I am a bit tense to be honest. Blah!

Source for all images: Pinterest: Wedding Party Board

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 16}: Wood Decor

        Browsing Pinterest and Etsy I have found some wonderful wooden accents to use for wedding decor. I have especially been looking for ways to incorporate it into the way we display our food items. My parents have access to plenty of trees on their property in Livingston, and my fiance's brother, Will, clears land for a living. I figured I would try to find things that would put them to work and add their own touches to the wedding. Below are what I found so far.

Now not only could you use this as a dessert display, but cheese and fruit, hors d'oeuvres, etc. Source:

I am dying for a cake stand such as this one. However, the lone stand with the round slab makes me nervous. I would rather opt for one sound, thick slab of wood - then carve our signature onto it that we have used throughout our stationary. Source: Etsy

Another way to display your food - I would love a few of those wooden square slabs to display our pre-made cocktails in mason jars. Source: Etsy

I think this is a great rustic way to display bar options!! Source: Style Me Pretty

I love this food display! It is so simple, but makes a statement. This wedding was fabulous and you should definitely check out all of their awesome ideas using the source link :-) Source: Green Wedding Shoes

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 15}: Mason Jars

Our "Country Boy Meets City Girl" themed wedding involves a lot of mason jars. Luckily, living in Texas there is an abundance of mason jars and we were able to obtain A TON of FREE mason jars from a local peach orchard that had retired - my fiance's aunt was his friend and heard he was going to just throw away all those fabulous mason jars. She remembered me and was able to bring me out there to load them all up and take them off his hands. Sweet!

I like this idea! Especially for those few mason jars that are plain without the vintage writing on them already.

Source

This eclectic mix of mason jars wrapped in twine, bows of raffia, or just filled with cotton/twigs is perfection to me.

Source

I love the simplicity of this - wild flowers with various candles, rustic horseshoes, wooden base, burlap table clothes - Perfect for a rustic outdoor wedding.

Source:

Now this was found completely separate from the above post, but again would be a good idea for mason jars - especially those small mason jars that you could easily use for single blooms. Another idea, mix food coloring with mod-podge and you get a simple translucent stain, perfect for any color you need! Then add tea-light candles!

Source

Simple twine to dress up mason jars.

Source

This is my FAVORITE of all centerpieces - the mason jars with jute ribbon or burlap, held together with twine or raffia, topped off with that main focal piece with cotton and wheat - Oh, la, la!

Source

You could take this idea with the suggestion above - if you didn't color the candle itself, again use the idea of mod podge + food coloring to add the colorful glow to your homemade mason jar candle!

Source

Do I even need to explain this picture!?

Source

Great way to decorate the isle or walk-way - you could even take this off the shepherd hook and hang from tree branches or wooden beams from the ceiling with clear fishing line. It would be very magical.

Source

So many ideas!!! As the wedding gets closer, I am finding it harder and harder to narrow down all these inspirations to figure out what I want to actually do! Tomorrow I head to Canton with the in-laws for my future MIL's birthday. Hoping I can find further inspiration there on ways to dress up mason jars in a rustic way. :-) Main goal for Canton - 150 horseshoes. Yes - ONE-HUNDRED-FIFTY. I can't wait to blog this idea! 

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No 14}: The Get-Away!

        The Get-Away - this is the moment at the end of the wedding when everyone waves farewell as you depart to your hotel/honeymoon! If you love photos, like me, this is another perfect opportunity for fabulous photos....so choose wisely!
        I have seen people drive away in numerous things such as these:

Vintage pick-up - Source: Brides.com

Classic Car - Source: Sincerely Yours Online

Eco-Friendly - Source: Candles and Such

Romantic Horse-Drawn Carriage - Source: Martha Stewart

Personalized - Source: Martha Stewart

        However, I do believe our get-away vehicle is one personalized vehicle! One thing I love about Henry, he is a fellow Aggie, my Aggie-Sweetheart. I think he put it perfectly when creating our wedding website, "I couldn't imagine marrying anyone outside of the Aggie family which is why Heather is perfect for me. She doesn't look at me funny when I "whoop" at the TV when we're beating the hell outta t.u. and she understands why I still haven't thrown out my lucky A&M hat that I wore to my first football game six years ago, even though it's falling apart. She also didn't think it was odd that we had to walk under the Century Tree together before I would marry her. Outsiders don't get these things." 
       It's true. Outsiders don't always understand our crazy, whacky traditions, but Henry does. So, when I found our get-away vehicle to present to Henry he was just as excited as I was. I show random family members and they just kind of give that half-hearted, "Oh....cool" - but fellow Aggies usually respond with a whole-hearted, "That's awesome! How did you figure that out!?" haha
        Sooooo.....Here is our get-away vehicle! 100% Personalized 100% Aggie 100% US! I couldn't be happier! :-)

Oh yes! Fightin' Texas Aggie BUS 12!! WHOOP!

       This bus is well equipped. It plays the Texas Aggie Fight Song, has a rooftop that can hold 10 people, and can drive around with about 20 people inside. It will take Henry and myself, along with 18 other people in our wedding party, around the A&M campus for last minute photos before dropping us off at Northgate where we can relive the first night Henry and I met, and where Henry proposed. From Northgate, we will take our beloved Carpool to our hotel. :-) It's a night full of Aggie love and tradition. I couldn't be more excited, no matter how little you may understand. haha
       

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No 13}: HONEYMOON!

       If you didn't already know, Henry and I plan to spend our honeymoon in Greece and Italy....for 3 WEEKS! Whoop! Our honeymoon is one of the main reasons we have been engaged for 2 years and 1 month - and will be engaged for 2 years and 6 months by the time our wedding rolls around.

        I know every couple has their own individual priorities post wedding, such as, buying a house, having a baby, etc., that prevent them from taking a honeymoon. However, Henry and I wanted to make sure that after our wedding we were able to take the best honeymoon ever! We didn't want to say, "We will take one later", because quite honestly, "later" rarely happens. We wanted to make sure we put US first. The first few days of being married are crucial, you at least owe it to yourselves to spend a few days together. Even if it is in a hotel down the street!

         Our itinerary is to fly from DFW to Athens, then take a smaller plane to the island of Mykonos, where we would stay 3 nights. Then we would take a boat from Mykonos to the island, Santorini, for another 3 nights. Then fly back to Athens for two nights. From Athens we fly to Naples and stay in the Amalfi Coast for 5 nights (and my birthday WHOOP!). Following Amalfi, we take a bus to Rome for a few nights, then train to Venice for a few nights, then back to Rome to fly back to DFW. Total time: 3 weeks.

Source from top left to bottom right:

1. Mykonos

2. Santorini

3. Amalfi Coast

4. Rome

5. Venice

         We set our travel budget for $10,000.  When we started researching flights, my jaw dropped. $10,000 was not going to be near enough! The flights from DFW to Athens were around $2,000 for the both of us after taxes. Flights from Rome to DFW were a little over $5,000 for the both of us after taxes. That is $7,000 for flights round trip. That didn't include our small flights to the islands, boat rides, bus rides, train rides, places to stay, food, etc.

        So, I started subscribing to tons of travel sites. I monitored flight price changes using a website called, Yapta. I subscribed to Vayama, another travel website, that sends you deals for international flights. I got Travel Zoos Top 20 e-mails once a week - which we will definitely be using for later trips. Once a week you get this e-mail that enlists the top 20 travel deals for around the world. These are amazing deals, some including airfare to places like Ireland, Thailand, CUBA!, Spain, Costa Rica, etc. They are great deals you can pay for now and then use at a later date. Definitely worth it if you have the money available and know for a fact you plan on taking a trip somewhere, anywhere. They range from $300 to a couple thousand. Then there was Gate 1 Travel deals. I wish I had not subscribed to this one so late, we could've booked a lot of awesome things through this site. It is similar to Travel Zoo, but their vacations are more pre-planned.

        Future recommendation, make a completely separate e-mail for all your wedding stuff. HAHA You subscribe to so many things at Wedding Conventions, different vendors for pricing, travel stuff, etc. Your e-mail gets on overload. 

        Anywho, all the subscriptions paid off! Vayama came through on its amazing international deals. We were able to book, round trip DFW --> Athens --> Rome --> DFW, for both of us, taxes, fees, everything for a little over $2,000!! We were even able to get trip insurance in case something happened later. WOOHOO!

        After browsing numerous flight websites, we were able to get our island flights and flight to Naples for about $1,000 total for both us using Momondo. A website similar to Kayak, where it pretty much acts like the google for flights, searching several different website's flight prices, and bringing all of them to one page for you.

        Overall, I think we made out like a bandit to get all our flights for $3,000! Patience is a virtue, and it definitely paid off. If you know of any other great travel websites, please comment below or e-mail me! We want to step a foot in each country, so any help in doing so is greatly appreciated.

-Alana XOXO

Wedding Inspired Wednesday: {No 11} Delayed - DIY Wedding Floral

         I am doing all my own wedding floral. If you are currently planning a wedding or any sort of event, you have probably come to learn how pricey flowers can be! I have browsed website after website, local vendors, etc. to try and find the cheapest way to DIY, without giving up your favorite flowers or looking cheap. Fifty Flowers has been by far the cheapest across the board, not to mention free FedEx shipping, options for sample orders, and numerous helpful tips! They even have wedding consultants that can help you determine how much to order based on what you need. In my case, 16 centerpieces, 2 wedding party table centerpieces, 1 sweetheart table centerpiece, 11 boutonnieres, 6 bridesmaid bouquets, bridal bouquet, 5 corsages, grooms cake table decor, wedding cake floral, sign in table - aaaaaaaaand I think that covers it? HA!

        Through Fifty Flowers I found Affordable Floral - This website is where you can get decently priced DIY wedding floral tools, as well as ideas on how to do the floral. They have a page titled "Build A Bouquet" with various types of bouquets listed to help you, just like it says, build a bouquet. Fabulous!


How about this DIY Bouquet? Black and White Rose and Feather Hand-Tied Bouquet It provides a list of all materials and how they were used, pictures and even a video! Then it gives you the list of materials and the option to order them right there. Pretty nifty, eh? You could even substitute the black feathers for wheat stalks, or peacock feathers. Many ways to switch this simple DIY up to fit your theme.



Fall Dahlia Hand-Tied Bouquet This is my style bouquet! The same things are provided, materials, pictures, video and option to purchase the items.



This is a gorgeous simplistic DIY centerpiece idea - Manzanita Branch Idea with Moss Runner



Don't you just love this natural decor?! If only my colors were green. Find this DIY Green Wedding Centerpiece at Affordable Floral as well!

         Another useful tool I found, Wedding Flower Recipe Worksheet - Here you enter in the flowers you want, and it calculates the flowers you need to create the specific item. Example: Bridal Bouquet has a column, below you put the number you need, which is 1. Then there are rows called "Focal", "Filler", "Greenery", "Line", where you enter the specific flower you intend to use, such as, Dahlia, Babys Breath, Lily Grass, Wheat. You enter the number of each one you intend to use to create the piece and it calculates how much you need for each one. You can then look through Fifty Flowers website to find corresponding packages to enter in and it will calculate how many you will have left over. This way, you don't buy too much or too little, and all your flower arrangements are there in a neat excel sheet to pass out to those who are helping
         These are just a few of the helpful tips on how to do your wedding floral yourself. The two websites above have a ton of tips for browsing through. Check them out! If you find anything different, or better, please share! :-)

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No 10}: DIY "Will you be my...." Cards

        Part of the wedding process is picking those few special people to be your bridesmaids/groomsmen. The people who mean the absolute most to you, and who you would want more than anyone standing next to you on that big day when you begin the next chapter of your life. With such an important meaning, you should take time and consideration on how you ask them. I find it rather informal if you just call them up or shoot them a text or e-mail. If anything, take them to lunch, to get their nails done, something special! My special way of asking? Making "Will you be my cards...".

         After endless searching online I couldn't find anything that made me say, "AHA! That's it!" - so I figured I would just buy the paper myself and get to working! Paper Planet in Fort Worth sells HUGE rolls of custom made paper. I swung by there on a Saturday, looked at all their gorgeous paper and settled on 3 different kinds. The backing and main card would be made with a maroon textured paper, which sort of reminded me of leather. Then came the inner layers of espresso brown, metallic copper, and ivory cardstock. See below:

         I was making 5 cards - so one full sheet of the maroon ($6), a half sheet of metallic copper ($3), 5 8x11 sheets of espresso brown ($2) and 12 8x11 sheets of ivory cardstock ($6) = $17 (I rounded up for tax purposes too). Each card was a single pocket-invite lay-out. You could easily buy pre-made pocket invites online if you didn't want to go through the hassle of making them yourself.

1.  I wanted 5x7s, so I measured the length of the paper 17" -this included the length of the opened card + the flap to be folded over 6.75" + 6.75" + 3.5" = 17"
2. Then the height of the cards would be 4.75" The reduced measurements allow the cards to fit properly in the envelopes without being too bulky

3.   Measure 3.5" from the end and fold - Bone Folders are the best for creating straight, perfect folds. Check out this link here to see Martha Stewart's Bone Folder

4.   Using a hot glue gun, put a thin line of glue along the edge of the flap, you can use the bone folder or another straight edge to press the two pieces together *Make sure to start inward and push outward, otherwise your pocket won't be very use-able haha *Also it is ok if it comes out of the edge, just cut it off after it dries :-)

5. Using your preferred method of folding, measure 6.75" from the other end and fold to creat your pocket invite!

6.   The inner left side of my pocket is where it stated what their wedding role was. "Maid of Honor" or "Bridesmaid", with 3 different layers. First layer was espresso brown. I measured the full 6.75"x4.75" for each invite and cut 5 of them - then hot glued it to the inside.

7.    Second layer was the metallic copper paper - this was measured a little smaller at 6.5"x4.5" and hot glued to the inside on top of the espresso brown

8.   The final layer was typed up on my Microsoft Word - I created text boxes measuring 6"x4" - although they would later be cut to 6.25"x4.25" to allow room for margins - I was able to fit 2-3 per 8x11 page pending their role and what I typed below. Each one included their title, name, and personal reason on why I chose them to be a part of my special day. After printing, I cut them and hot glued them on top of the copper paper

9.   Then came the pocket inserts. I had 4 composing of Expectations, Attire, I Promise..., and the Five of You

Expectations: This is what I expected of each bridesmaid, including bachelorette party, day of the rehearsal dinner and what we would be doing, day of the wedding and what we would be doing. I also told them that I knew there would be a few showers thrown and since each of them technically live out of town, I did not expect them all to be at each of them, or even just one - that I understood the expenses of flying and travelling.

Attire: This was not fully decided, but I did let them know to expect to wear boots, and a cocktail length dress. That I would let them decide on their dresses since this was their out-of-pocket expense and I wanted them to like what they bought and if possible, even wear again after the wedding. Also, they would be responsible for their hair and make-up, we could arrange for the person who does mine to help them, they could find their own, or do it themselves.

I Promise...: This was my promise to them. To not be a Bridezilla, to enjoy this planning process to the fullest, and to laugh as often as possible. To understand that the day was about us and love, not bees and insects, bad hair-dos, or being sweaty. I asked them to be honest with me, if I was getting out of control, getting fat from too much cake tastings, if my hair choices were hideous, etc. It was a light-hearted, sweet promise .

The Five of You: This included each of the girls names, roles, and numbers.

10.   Expectations was the biggest, using a text box on Microsoft Word 6.25"x4.25" and cut accordingly to 6.5"x4.5" to allow smaller area from any hot glue that might have made the pocket smaller

11.   Attire/I promise/The Five of You are all cut subsequently smaller, pending on how much you type on each, this will also determine if they go in the same order as mine did. *Be sure to note you cut each ones length the same only the heights will change

12.   On the back of each invite, I also glued a picture of myself with the particular person. A picture I was fond of or knew they were fond of.

13. On the front I did a 1.5" square Monogram using the same espresso/copper/ivory layers.

Final step was to mail them out and wait! :-) If any of these steps are unclear, please let me know and I will gladly clarify! I will be posting another pocket-invite how-to hopefully the beginning the of June 2012! So stay tuned! :-)

For more card inspirations, check out my other posts: DIY Wedding Invitation Class or Burlap Bunting How-To to learn how to print directly on burlap - you could even print the info on the burlap and glue the printed burlap to decorative paper for a real rustic touch. :-)

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 9}: Burlap Engagement Bunting How-To

          After many days of browsing  for wedding ideas I came across engagement photos with buntings. Each one was different, with it's own style. Fabric buntings, paper buntings, buntings with sayings, buntings with numbers, etc. Since our engagement photos were coming up I decided to come up with one of our own! Our wedding theme is, "Country Boy Meets City Girl", so it was only fitting for our Six-O Ranch engagement photo location to use a burlap bunting strung with twine.

      Materials:

1. Burlap - Hancock Fabrics 1 yard $3
2. Ball of Twine - $7 at Wal-mart
3. Freezer Paper - Wal-mart
4. Iron
5. Ironing board
6. Ink-jet Printer
7. No-Sew stitching glue - $6 Hobby Lobby
8. Cardboard "stencil" - Cardboard box from garage :-P
9. Magazine
10. Scissors
11. Tape

Preparing burlap for direct printing:

         I took my burlap, freezer paper, iron & ironing board to prepare the burlap for direct printing. With the burlap ironed & flat on the ironing board, I took a piece of freezer paper, not too big, & laid it on top of the burlap - shiny side facing the burlap. On medium, NO STEAM, heat I ironed the freezer paper to the burlap. It takes a few minutes, but the freezer paper eventually sticks to the burlap - which is easily peeled off later.

         With the magazine, I traced an 8x11 outline on the freezer paper, then cut out the outline of freezer paper/burlap. Your burlap is now ready to be fed through the printer for printing! I used a font called, "Bleeding Cowboy" that we intend to use for other wedding stationary.

Printing:

        Choose your wording on Microsoft Word, put the burlap/freezer paper in the printer like you would normal paper - pay attention to which way it needs to face to print on burlap, not freezer paper. Print! Peel off your freezer paper & TA-DA! You now have your printed burlap!

Assembly of Bunting:

        I decided to do a shape different from the typical triangular bunting, especially since I needed a bit more room for the wordings. I took the flap of a cardboard box and cut out the shape of choice. I then used double sided tape & lined the edges of the cardboard to hold the burlap in place as I cut around the burlap edges. Take your twine & cut to desired length.

My bunting in the original 8x11 form right after printing - prior to cutting them with the cardboard outline

        Using the No-Sew stitching glue, put a good amount on the burlap at the desired spot - I chose to do an inch below the top - and press the burlap onto the twine. The glue will seep through a bit & will be white, but it dries clear. :-) Give it a good 24 hours before handling to make sure the glue really sets. :-) Since we were going to be outside, I then glued a 2nd piece of burlap to the back of each individual bunting shape. This was to make the letters stand out better & to add weight to the light burlap in case of wind. THAT'S IT! Now enjoy your bunting masterpiece.


The bottom right burlap you can see I have glued the twine 1in from the top, burlap in top right



Keep in mind you could line your bunting with the twine, jewels, lace, etc. The options are endless!

Bunting strung across our fireplace mantel until it was time to be used - hence the boo sign, this was back in October haha

These two were worn by our adorable puppies! I braided the twine to make it easier to tie around their necks.

       Check back to see the final photos taken by the wonderful photographer, Michelle Peyronet < click the link the check out her work! :-)



One of our favorite engagements utilizing the dogs and their buntings!



Here is the final 5x7 Magnet Save-the-Date that Michelle Peyronet designed for us! It doesn't have the best clarity using my iPhone of it up on our fridge, but you get the point :-)