Leave of Absense

Hi all,

Just an FYI...

I have been (and will be) taking time off from posting to Boston Bride Wedding Blog in order to concentrate on my fiance's heath.

Best,
Kayla

How to Make a French Memo Board

I've always liked the look of french memo boards and I wanted to use them to hold old sepia colored photographs of my fiance and I's parents, grandparents and great-grandparents on their wedding days. Since I'm VERY detail-oriented, I wanted the french memo boards to match with our wedding colors. So, I decided to make them myself with supplies my fiance and I picked up at Michael's (I owe him!!). Turns out, they're not too difficult to make! In fact, I spent more time in the craft store choosing the fabric and buttons than creating all three french memory boards! (P.S. I ended up returning all of the buttons the next day and replacing them with pressed flowers for a more formal and elegant look!)

Here's how to make a french memo board and how my final project turned out!

How to Make A French Memo Board:

Materials for a 16x20" french memo board:

-16x20" stretch canvas on stretcher bars
-1 yard of fabric for each board

-Quilt batting, about 20x24"
-6 yards of 1/2 inch ribbon (I used satin, but gross grain ribbon works great, too)

-5 buttons (optional)
-Needle and thread to sew the buttons on

-Scissors

-Staple gun and staples

Instructions:
1. Place the canvas face down on top of the quilt batting. Cut the quilt batting around the canvas leaving about 3-5 inches on all sides. (The batting I used was thin, so I folded it in half so it would have extra padding covering the canvas.)

2. Fold the edges over the sides of the canvas like you're wrapping a gift and staple it to the wooden part of the canvas. Be sure that the batting is nice and tight. Tim the excess batting.
3. Do the same with the fabric. Place the batting-covered canvas on top of the fabric and cut around the canvas leaving about 3-5 inches around the edge. Fold in the edges like you're wrapping a gift and use the staple gun to staple the fabric to the wooden area of the canvas. Trim the excess fabric.
4. Attach the ribbon. Measure out 2 pieces of ribbon that will reach from one corner of the memo board to the opposite corner, then make a big "X" with the ribbons on the memo board. After attaching the two pieces of ribbon to form the "X" using your staple gun, measure out 4 more pieces of ribbon that will reach from the middle of one side of the memo board to the middle of the adjacent side. These pieces of ribbon will ultimately form a diamond around the "X".

5. Attach the buttons using needle and thread if desired. I used a hot glue gun to attach dry flowers to place where the ribbons cross.

6. Disply your pictures! (I haven't finished arranging and displaying my pictures, but I stuck these in for show!)I made two french memo boards with blue fabric and wine colored ribbon and one larger french memo board with wine fabric and blue ribbon. I think I might use the larger memo board to display our guests' favorite memories of us. Later, we'll have our maid of honor and best man read a couple of the best ones outloud for everyone to hear (...and probably get a laugh out of!). We think it will be a nice way to involve our friends and family in our day.

An Elegant Halloween Wedding

Halloween wedding do not have to be associated with witches, ghosts, skeletons, and other scary creatures and that go bump in the night! They can be fun and romantic! Here's an elegant Halloween wedding inspiration board that I created using bright orange tones and other fall favorites!

Wedding Place Cards

Place cards don't have to be limited to paper tents lined up on a table! It's fun to think outside of the box and come up with a unique way to display their guests' names and seating assignments that go with their wedding theme! Sometimes, you can even have the place cards double as a wedding favors for your guests, which can help you keep your budget down! For my wedding, I'd like to stick mini wooden "signs" with my guests' names handwritten on them into berry cartons that will line the table. This will help set the theme for our wedding and also help to incorporate our berry tones! I haven't figured out the logistics yet, but if/when I do, I will be sure to them them! For now, here's what other brides have done to spice up their place cards!



I love the idea of attaching guests names to a horseshoe for a rustic wedding... and the pinwheels are simply adorable for a spring or summer wedding! For an outdoor wedding, hanging your place cards from a clothesline works great, or, try wrapping a strings in circles around a tree and hanging them from there! I also liked the traditional " tent"place cards on top of the rocks with the flowers around them. Placing them in a container on top textured objects is a low-cost, high impact way to display place cards! Some ideas are using small stones (for a Zen-like feel), cranberries (perfect for a fall wedding!), flower pedals, sand (for a beach wedding!), small candy, grass, bird seed, and coffee beans.

I created these collages of unique place cards using images are from The Knot, Chic Soiree Wedding and Event Planning, and Huckleberry Karen Designs.

Two if by Land... Two if by Sea

The wait is over! Meet the beautiful David and Nicole, who exchanged their vows in a Jewish ceremony at the Bar Harbor Inn in Maine. What was especially unique about David and Nicole's wedding is that their gift for their guests was a sunset cruise on Bar Harbor! The images by Sarah Bastille of this magazine-worthy wedding are unbelieveable... you can literally feel the love! But, you don't have to take my word for it.... take a look for yourself!

I love, love, love the yellow! It's so bright and happy, just like the couple!