Filed under: Wedding Words by Chelsea

In an effort to instill small personal details into the wedding, we decided to have shot glasses customized with our names and the date as favors for our guests. I collect shot glasses from every vacation I take (a habit that started, not surprisingly, during my college days) and Nate thought it would be a fun way to put a bit of my personality into things. I’m not sure exactly what that says about my personality, but here we are nonetheless!

There is one problem, though: I simply can’t find a favor box that fits the shot glasses. I know that this problem could easily be solved with favor bags, but for some reason I’m really set on boxes for the favors. I’ve seen table settings with both and I just think boxes look cuter. So I set out on a crazy mission to make my own favor boxes. I found a great pattern on Style Me Pretty with four different prints, and I used Photoshop to adjust the sizing and color for our wedding.

I’m using the standard generic cardstock from Michael’s to print these out on our home printer. I’ve printed 30 in each print and plan on alternating them on the table (there’s eight people per table so it works out perfectly for there to be two of each pattern per table).

I then cut the printed patterns out and use a straight-edge and bone folder to create creases where the boxes need to be folded. Then I fold them and, finally, glue the edges together before inserting the favors with a decorative little piece of white tulle. It takes a long time. A really, really, really long time. So long, in fact, that when my terribly-behaved cat decided to pee on 50 of the cut-out patterns, I had a conniption fit and just about disowned the little bastard entirely.

But then I realized that things could be worse. He could have chosen to pee on the already-folded ones with the favors in them. That would have been a true disaster. And as bad as he is, I really love that bastard cat.

Filed under: Wedding Words by Chelsea

A little over 4 months to go until D-day (or what Nate and his friends are referring to as “the beginning of the end”), and we’re starting to get into the minutia of it all. My fingers are pretty much raw from cutting and folding invites, placecards, etc. We’re trying to include personal details in as many aspects as possible – which is why the cake topper that Nate found is perfect.

Nate’s line of work requires him to carry a gun, and together we’ve spent hours at the shooting range perfecting his (and my) aim. Now, I know that guns are kind of controversial. I personally have all sorts of opinions on the right to bear arms, gun safety and children, etc., but I’ll spare you my thoughts on that and just say that as a woman, I think it’s a necessity to know how to defend yourself. I feel better knowing that if (god forbid) I ever get into a situation, I know how to handle myself and will – at the very least - give the guy a run for his money.

There is one problem, though: I’m not blonde. And he’s not brunette. So I whipped out my acrylic paint set and went to work.

Nate complained that the silver guns were “too shiny,” so I brushed them with black to make them match his real ones. I also painted the flowers blue to match our color. If we were going for complete accuracy here, his head would be buzzed and my arms wouldn’t be that skinny. But overall, I like this little Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie-ish version of us.

For any other gun-toting, acrylic paint-loving soon to be wed couples out there, the “Super Sexy Spy” cake topper is available at Amazon for $28 + $4.99 shipping.