It's a Nice Day For a (Black and) White Wedding...

Have I mentioned before that I love being an Aunt? 

Have I also mentioned that I love making things for my nieces and new little nephew? 

My oldest niece, Ronnica, got married this week and she and her fiance new husband, Justin paid for the wedding themselves. My niece had zillions of ideas of things that she wanted to do and how she wanted things to be and after shopping around, decided that the only way to have things the way she wanted was to make everything herself, as in the decor, the bouquets, the favors, etc. 

(Do I even have to explain where this is going?)  

Being the beloved crafty Aunt that I am, I was enlisted to help make things for the wedding. To be honest, I volunteered because I love my niece and knew how to make the things that she had brainstormed with me about. 

But also being the crafty, blogging Aunt that I am, I had to document all the projects that I made for the wedding. (Because that's just how I roll.)

The first project that Ronnica asked me to make was a newspaper basket for the gift table for people to put cards in. I made a few of these awhile back to use to give presents in and she loved them so much (especially the fact that they can be made for practically free) that she asked me to make her one for the gift table. 

Done!

Chalkboard paint is all over blog land these days and I suggested to Ronnica making signs for the guest book table and gift table using chalkboard paint since it fit right in with her black and white theme. She loved the idea! So of course I used white plates that I found at the thrift store with decorative boarders and painted the insides with chalkboard paint for her to use on the guest book table and the gift table. 

  
Done!!

After seeing pictures on a wedding site, Ronnica decided that she wanted cutouts on a stick that her guests could take silly pictures with. I volunteered to make these since I had my awesome Silhouette machine which made it super easy. I also came up with the idea of mason jar holders with chalkboard labels to hold the cut outs on the tables.

Done!

Done!

DONE!!!

The next project that I volunteered to make was boutonnieres for the groomsmen, the groom and father grandfather of the bride. Since her bridesmaid bouquets were calla lilies, I wanted the groomsmen to match. Unfortunately, my budget for this project was extremely small, but I found a pre-made bouquet of calla lilies at Michael's and used a 40% off coupon. I came home and Amazing Boyfriend cut it apart for me. The flowers weren't all the same size, so I used the bigger ones for the groomsmen and two of the smaller ones together for the groom and grandfather of the bride. One of the bridesmaids, the amazing Tiffany is awesome at making bows! I tried a few times to make bows for this project, but just couldn't get them quite right. She came to the rescue and made cute bows for all the boutonnieres. 

   
Done!!!!

The next project that I volunteered to make after seeing a picture of what she wanted, was the flower girl basket. She also wanted black rose petals as well as white ones. The basket part was easy. I did attempt to dye some fake rose petals black but that turned into a craft FAIL! Lucky for me, my niece is pretty forgiving (although I think that she forgave me because when I had my craft fail, I still had possession of most of the things I'd made for her.) 

Done!!!!!!

The last project that she needed done because the person that told her that they would make them flaked out on her, was two matching ring pillows. My twin nieces, Rylee and Tylar, younger sisters of the bride, were included in the wedding as ring girls. This project seemed more of a challenge for me, since I'm not the greatest sewer in the world, but not outside my realm of capabilities. 

Rylee and Tylar posing with their pillows

Done and Done!!!

A last minute project that I took on was toasting glasses. My niece had bought a bunch of plastic toasting glasses that we (myself and two of her really good friends) decorated with ribbon and with my bright idea of putting chalkboard paint on the base so that we could write on them for the wedding party. Her Mom asked her why she didn't have special toasting glasses for the bride and groom, to which her reply was that it was out of her wedding budget. So I took it upon myself to go get her a pair of toasting champagne flutes and work my crafting magic on them. I was absolutely thrilled with the final result of the bride and groom glasses, especially when Amazing Boyfriend gave me the nicest compliment by saying, "No one is going to know you made those. They look store bought." Just what I was going for!

I chalkboard painted 25 of these for her bridal party and other special guests!

 Done and Done!!!


DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  

Me, my niece Ronnica and Amazing Boyfriend in his awesome hat!

 

I'm so happy that I was able to help out with my nieces' wedding and add those little touches that made her big day so unique. It was a lot of work, but so worth it in the end. Their wedding was beautiful and so much fun!  

I'm sharing these projects at the following link parties: