Wedding Photos: Album Dilemma

October 22nd marked our 3 month wedding anniversary & Scott and I celebrated by re-living our wedding day online.  We sat down, looked at every single wedding photo on the Elegant Imagery proofs website and selected our favorite 40 60 (oops!) to make up our coffee table photo album.  

Picking our top photos choices was not easy. Actually, the task might have been harder than planning our wedding all together...then again, maybe not.  Regardless, it took hours for Scott and I to select what we were asked to from our photos.

Included in our photography package was the coffee table photo album and a 4x6" print out of every single picture.  As if picking a select few for the coffee table album wasn't hard enough, I'm now on a mission to find an album to hold ALL 700+ of our printed wedding day photos.

First, let's get something straight: I am not in any way, shape or form complaining about having a bagillion photos to pick from.  Each and every single photo has been edited, optimized and is gorgeous.  We are ecstatic with how they turned out and can't wait to share some with you...

My ideal album (obviously) would be an over the top bling-ed out scrapbook style like this Florida Etsy Street Wedding Album:

what...too much for every day decor?

For our stack of photos: definitely.

Now I started thinking more on a practical level.  What could hold all of our photos and allow us to display it in our home?  I thought of something like this Wedding Memories Keepsake Trinket Box:

This is a unique idea and I like it, but then again I don't.  I couldn't handle sticky finger prints on all of our wedding photos, not to mention getting them out of order.

That would drive me insane!  So...what's a girl to do???
A dictionary-sized album? Stack them up and put a big pretty bow on them like a present? Grrr.

I felt a little relieved when I came across this Engravable Wedding Album from Pottery Barn: 

It says it has 45 double sided page inserts, but doesn't give details on how many photos it can hold.  Pages can be "inserted or removed," but does that mean it can hold OUR stack of photos?  Hmmm...

If that doesn't work, I love the idea of this Pioneer 12-at-a-time ELITE album from sendaframe.com that holds 12 4x6" photos per open page.

The front of the album is hideous not very cute...especially for wedding photos, but I think I could scrapbook that up.

Decisions, decisions.  I thought the wedding planning was over?!
I think I might need some help on this one.

The only other options I've found are:
Kleer-Vu Photo Leatherette Album
Kleer-Vu Memo Album Wedding Moire Collection

What would you do with these?

Any comments or suggestions are welcomed & appreciated! :)

*NOTE: I recently changed my settings from registered users only to anyone so ALL of you can share! Comment in the box below + share away my friends...

Questions:

• Which album(s) do you like best?
• Would you get one monster of an album that holds all of the photos or break them up?
• Classy engraved album, or scrapbook style?

Guest Seating Chart Game

In the previous post I mentioned that I'd be letting a lot of "cats out of the bag" by sharing secret projects Scott and I had worked on hard for our wedding day...and here's a FUN one!

When it came to the seating chart for our guests, we really wanted to do something creative and interactive.  At first, we were going to just use our favorite movie quotes about love on each table, but then we conspired together and came up with a great scavenger hunt type of game for our guests to play during cocktail hour in order to find where exactly they were supposed to sit.

Let me explain our Seating Chart Game:

Each guest's name was listed in a group of ten under a popular quote from one of our favorite movies.  As a guest, you were to look for your name and then identify what movie the quote it was under is from.  We tried to match certain movies with certain personality types, or to people who would know what movie that particular quote came from.  The whole point of this was to give the guests something to do during cocktail hour, while Scott and I finish up our wedding photos.

It was finally the wedding week and we had to put this thing together.  I'm not going to lie...this project turned into a pretty big headache pretty quickly, but that's what I've always heard about seating charts - regardless.  So, why not make it fun?!  It was a Monday night when we started this puppy and it probably took about 5 good hours for 2 nights to finish it off.  Now, this time wasn't ALL on the craft part...but also on placement of our guests, which can take FOREVER!

Night 1:  

We get into the nitty gritty.  It was finally time to decide who sat where with who.  This can be a nightmare if you have a ton of guests who don't know each other, or if you have a large number, but thankfully our guests were extremely easy to work with and pair up.  At least half of the room knew each other, if not more than that, so once we paired people up it didn't take that long to place them at certain tables.  Since we had a sweetheart table for us, we decided to use the tables surrounding the dance floor for Bridal Party and our immediate families only.

After being a bridesmaid in a few weddings now, I have preferred to sit at a round table with my date and other members of the Bridal Party, rather than sitting at a head table...simply because you're sitting next to people in one straight line and you can't really talk to anyone but the 2 people next to you.  PLUS, OUR Bridal Party was the size of a kindergarten classroom, so adding dates to that and sitting everyone at one table just wasn't an option.

closeup of the chart - but overexposed so you can't see names!

We had 8 main tables for family and Bridal Party and the rest were filled with our wonderful friends.  I know people think placement of certain people or certain tables is for a reason, but honestly it's NOT!  I felt bad placing some friends in the corners of the room...but SOMEBODY has to sit there!  We tried to seat everyone as fairly as possible, and realized our reception was probably the type that people wouldn't be sitting in their seats for very long anyways, so we concentrated more on getting the game together than worrying about hurting people's feeling with something that's truly inevitable.

The first night we spent pairing people up, placing them at tables, and picking out our 20 favorite movies to use quotes from.

Night 2:

The second night was all about putting it all down on our chart and making the game happen.  It was hard to pick just 20 movies, and agree on them with Scott because we are both HUGE movie buffs.  We finally decided on our bunch and here's some of my favorite highlights:

"Wawawewa...I Like You!"

"Slippery Little Suckers."

"Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner!"

Can you think of the movies any of those fabulous quotes came from?  Well, just in case you have no idea we made a CHEAT deck of cards with the corresponding movie to movie quote on each one.  (By the way, the first one was from Borat, the second was Pretty Woman & the third was Dirty Dancing...all of MY FAVS!!)

We gave a copy of these movie to movie quote cheats to our wedding coordinator, as well as kept it hanging on the seating chart itself.

Here's an example of a movie quote that would be above the guest's name.

Flip the card over to see what movie it came from.

Here's the CHEAT cards we had hanging on the chart.

Once you found your movie, then it was time to look for your table!  Each movie was attached to the back of a picture of us found on each table.  We decided to use our Engagement Photos for all of the tables, except for our family tables, which my mom requested we use our Baby Photos for instead.  Since we had all of them scanned and out from our slide show, I thought it was a great idea and turned out absolutely adorable.

The front had our pictures and the back had the movie covers.

Pretty simple, once you get it - RIGHT?!

Find your name under a quote, think reallllllly hard about where that quote came from, (use the cheat sheet if you can't think of it), get the movie & look for the table with your movie on it!

This was the title on the top of the chart...GOOD LUCK! :)

We thought this idea was genius and was a fun way to keep our guests entertained throughout cocktail hour.  At first, my parents thought it might be too confusing for guests, but Scott stood strong on making this happen and we figured out a way for them to cheat and ask the wedding coordinator as well...so we were eventually all on board.  The only bad thing about this adventure is that Scott and I completely missed it! :( Of course, that's what it was designed for, but we were still kind of sad we didn't see all of the action and chaos throughout the game.

So there you have it!  Most people use table numbers or love quotes, but we decided to use a flipping scavenger movie quote hunt to seat our guests.  Go figure!  Now you can see why I barely did any posting in July...THIS was the kind of stuff we were working on!

From what we heard, the game was fun and definitely kept people busy.  I can't wait to see the video during cocktail hour - and how the guests perceived it.  As a guest, the last thing I want to do is sit there waiting on the Bride & Groom while looking at my watch thinking "when is this thing going to start?!"

If you're getting married, I would suggest doing something fun and entertaining during cocktail hour, and just know that you're going to miss out on it.  Believe me, it might be a bit of a headache at first, but if you plan your time accordingly your guests will thank you in the end.

Adding the Irish & Scottish "touch"

I had been debating back and forth on whether or not to post on the next subject before the wedding, and finally decided it would have to wait until after the big day was over.  There were so many special touches Scott and I put into our wedding, it was hard for me not to share them ALL with you before the wedding day, but I'm excited to say that I can finally share it ALL now, post by post!

First on the revealing list: Wedding Hint #8. 

What the heck was that thing?!

From day 1, I really wanted to incorporate the Irish heritage into our wedding. Since Scott's heritage is Irish & Scottish, he was totally on board with this idea.  Originally, we wanted to get married around St. Patrick's Day and have different shades of green and white as our colors, green hydrangeas, Irish food...the whole 9.  But, timing for us & a wedding in March was impossible.

Knowing this, we both agreed to incorporate little things here and there that represented both, but mostly the Irish heritage.  So I hopped onto the computer and started googling "Irish Wedding traditions" and found several ideas right away.

My DIY Handfasting Cord

My favorite Irish touch at our wedding was the unity ceremony called Handfasting.  We really, really wanted a different way to unite our lives during the ceremony than the standard unity candle, or sand ceremony and when I found this I knew it was something we HAD to do.

First, I hopped online to try to find the perfect cord for us...and big surprise, I didn't find exactly what I wanted so I made my own!  It isn't that difficult to make your own cord...but unfortunately, I threw our cord together literally RIGHT BEFORE the ceremony rehearsal (literally) and didn't get to document putting it together like I wanted to.

Brides...you'll see how fast the wedding week you took "off" of work goes and how many last minute projects to truly have! For this reason, I don't have step-by-step pictures, but what I can tell you is what you would need to make a handfasting cord:

3 cords - 3 different colors
clear duct tape
ribbon
embellishments (optional)
scissors

When I first tried to put a cord together, I started with ribbon only - I picked out 3 different types of each color (pink, green and white) and I planned on braiding those together first to create my own cords.  After a few failed attempts, I decided to call that task quits and search for actual colored cords.  I found the 3 colored cords pictured at The Sewing Studio in Maitland.  You might be able to find similar ones a JoAnn Fabrics or Michaels, but I'm not positive on that one.

Hanfasting cords have to be long enough to wrap around each persons wrist, so you should get anywhere between 4 - 6 feet of cording.  Knowing I had crosses at the bottom to hang, I opted for a yard and a half (or 4.5') and it turned out to be the perfect length.

Next, I put the 3 cords side by side and put a heavy book on top of them so I could braid it together.  This was not challenging, but tricky to keep the same look throughout the entire cord...so be sure to see how much length and width you're giving each part of the braid.

When I finished braiding, I took some clear duct tape and wrapped it around the two edges of the cord.  I wanted to add dangling crosses to each side, so this is where I put part of the pink cord I didn't use through the loops of both crosses, dangled them on each end, and taped extra pink cording to the end of each side.

I got these beauties at Michaels in the beading department and thought they were the perfect addition!

Since taped on dangling crosses doesn't look the prettiest, this is where the ribbon comes in.

Cut two strips about 4 inches long of your ribbon of choice and wrap one around each tape gathering.  I used more clear duct tape to fasten the ribbon on the back of the cord, but ideally if I had more time I would have preferred to have sewn it instead.  And, VOILA!

Your very own DIY Handfasting cord:

Although, it's only tied to me.

We knew our guests wouldn't really understand right away what exactly what we were doing tying ourselves together with this cord, so we decided to explain it in our ceremony program which read:

Handfasting:

"An ancient Celtic tradition practiced when a couple could not afford a formal ceremony, or when a priest could not be found, this involves literally tying the couple together by the wrist in a sign of unifying their lives.  A couple would traditionally only be bound for one year and a day, sparking the phrase 'forever and a day,' although we plan to be bound for life.

They will be wrapped by a cord of three ribbons: a green one representing him, a pink one representing her, and a white one representing Christ.  The pastor will form a unity symbol around their wrists with a cord, and then he will tie it in a knot to seal the unity.  This is also where the phrase "tie the knot" originated."

When we explained the idea of Handfasting to our Pastor, he loved what it represented but also saw it as a challenge when it came to tying the thing correctly!  Luckily, he practiced on the Groom & a groomsmen before the ceremony, so it went perfectly.

Another Irish tradition I had on the big day was incorporating things into my wedding day attire.  It is thought of to be good luck for the bride to wear blue on her wedding day, but I wasn't too sure about that one...so we added blue a different way - in all of our bouquets!  In my bridal bouquet, as well as in all of the bridesmaids bouquets sat 2 blue pins: 1 representing me and 1 representing him, standing together.

closeup of the pins...but that's not where they were in the bouquet.

Next, I found that it is also tradition for and Irish bride to wear her hair in a braid.  Since I wanted to wear my hair mostly down, I though this might be somewhat of a challenge.  It took me the LONGEST time to decide on a hairstyle...since I kept going back and forth on whether I wanted a flower, a broach, a headband or what...and how to incorporate a braid into it.

With the help of my bridesmaid Lauren & my hairstylist, I decided on using fresh lime green orchids to pull it half up. On that side of my hair that was back, we put 2 finely braided pieces that met in the middle at the flowers.  Not many people would probably notice this, but when pictures finally come back I'm sure it will be noticeable at least in a photo or two - and I knew it was there...so it made me happy.  Once again, the braids represented 1 for me, 1 for him and the two of us standing together.

Here I am with 2 of my Irish bridesmaids - and...shamrock mints

Last, we wanted to have the Scottish heritage represented as well, so the best way we thought of doing that was having a bagpiper!  He was great, and played during our guests arrival to the church ceremony, as well as on their way out to the reception.  He was in full Scottish garb, and we got a lot of compliments on him.

Honestly, I didn't get to see this...because I was at the church earlier than he was supposed to show up - but from what pictures I've seen, he looked great!  Unfortunately, I don't have any of my pictures back yet to share ours with you, but you get the idea:



Little by little, I'm starting to learn more about the Irish & Scottish culture and next on my list for of expanding my new heritage is to learn how to cook some of their famous dishes!

I'm sure Scott wouldn't complain...Shepard's Pie is one of his favorites and it alllllllmost made the appetizers list.

DIY Aisle Decorations

With the wedding only a WEEK AWAY,  I have spent the last 2 weeks or so getting ready for the festivities by tying up all of the loose ends, finalizing all of our vendor plans & finishing up any crafts or decorations needed for the BIG DAY.

So far, this has been one of my favorite projects.  From the beginning, Scott and I knew that even though our ceremony will be inside of a church, we still wanted to be able to decorate it with a cool & even casual style.

Our chapel already included brass candelabras for each aisle, but to be honest that just wouldn't do for us.  If anything, we were going to rent silver ones to go with our color scheme, but that just seemed like an unnessecary expense.  After a little bit of researching online, and looking at wedding blogs, I finally came across a picture that gave me instant inspiration:

Duh. I have already given you all a Wedding Hint in the past that lets you know we will be using paper lanterns and decorations, but little did you know they would also be incorporated into our ceremony too!

Since the time I saved this picture onto my computer, I was on a mission to figure out how to make these babies on my own.

Step one was to find a place to get paper lanterns in the size and shape that we needed for the aisles.  Pretty quickly, I came across a great website that offers lanterns and other similar products in lots of shapes, colors, and sizes at a very reasonable price from a company called Just Artifacts. I found a few shades of pink that I was debating between, as well as size of lanterns that would look the best hanging from the pews. 

Agreat idea my mom suggested to me was to order 3 lanterns to sample: 1 in each shade of pink, 2 different sizes, and 2 different textures.  When the lanterns came in (surprisingly fast after about 3 days) I was instantly drawn to the EXACT pink color of the bridesmaid dresses and knew I needed the Dark Magenta in 8" to get the look I was going for.

By now, you all know our other main color in our wedding scheme is lime green, so I decided the ribbon and bow should be this color.  By trial and error, I realized the cloth type of fabric was the best to use for this type of thing, over the transparent or shiny types of ribbon.  The cloth holds the lantern straighter, is sturdier & gives the lantern and ribbon combo a cleaner look.

So, I had the supplies...now it was time to put these decorations together.  I promise that once you get the hang of it, these really don't take much time at all to assemble.  My mom and I came up with a great system to keep the ball (or lanterns) rolling while assembling them.

DIY Aisle Lantern Supplies:

I took this picture before I figured out exactly what would work best..

in reality, what you need is the following:

Paper lanterns.  I ordered 2 more than I needed, just in case.
Ribbon (to get through 16 lanterns we needed 6 spools).
12" ruler, or measuring tape
Stapler
Scissors
Lighter

Pretty easy (and affordable) list if you ask me!  
First, I measured out how long the ribbon should be that's holding the lantern.  

I wanted them to hang like the picture above, so I figured out cutting about a foot and 3 inches would do the trick.  Next, I had to figure out how to tie the bow and how long that ribbon should be.  Honestly, I didn't make the bow strings as long as I originally wanted them to be, but we were running out of ribbon and I'm pretty sure my mom and I bought out ALL of the local Michaels lime green ribbon spools...so we kept them a little bit shorter.

After the ribbon was cut and lined up for me to assemble to the lantern, I looped the ribbon through the metal wire part in the middle and stapled the two sides of ribbon together to form one big loop.  Staples turned out to be the best route to go, over tape or glue - and it took 2 seconds to do.

My mom, hard at work with me!

Also, I used the "bottom" of the metal part of the lantern's middle to loop the ribbon through so it was flatter and easier to loop.  That means there will be the top hanger part hanging on the bottom, but nobody is going to see that...so it didn't bother me to keep it there.  If it bothered you, you could easily take a pair of wire clippers and cut the hanger part off.

By this point, I needed to anchor the lantern somehow to be able to tie the bow in place.

I had one of Scott's gadgets that resembled a hook on the table to hold it in front of me.  I tied the shorter ribbon on the top of the lantern to make a bow, very similar to how I did for my Bridal Party Tanks.  (By the way, this is the same ribbon I used for those...now do you see what I bought the entire inventory?!)

When the bow was tied, I used the same technique as before by cutting the ribbon at an angle and burning the edges with a lighter to keep the ribbon from fraying.

So there you have it: a simple, unique, fun and certainly cost effective way to decorate your aisles for your wedding ceremony!

I could also re-use this idea for other events down the road, and know it would be great to decorate with anywhere from a backyard barbecue to a baby shower.  After assembling these, I am SO happy with how they turned out and I can't wait to see how they look at my actual wedding ceremony with all of the other decorations around them.

Thank you, Jesus for google image search.  I'm telling you, it's the only thing that's gotten me through this wedding planning process of keeping a budget.

Making those wedding day shoes MINE!

Let me just start out by saying I found THE perfect pair of wedding shoes for my entire dress/wedding ensemble.  I found these fabulous shoes after my first dress fitting back in last October, fell in love with the look of them with my dress.  I also loved the look of the accessories that just so happened to appear on my body (funny how bridal consultants can do that!).  So naturally, I saw the entire look together and had to have everything.

After debating back and forth, I finally decided I needed THESE shoes for the big day.  GOOD NEWS! When I called the bridal shop, they informed me that this particular shoe was being discontinued and they were 50% off.  Well, that's all you had to tell me because that made justifying getting these shoes that much easier,thank you Priscilla of Boston!

I've been storing my dress, my shoes, and my accessories at my parents' house for two reasons...1) because I know where it's at and everything has a place and no one will touch anything and 2) Scott can't go snooping around and find anything he's not supposed to!  About a week ago, I was at my parents' house and decided I was going to take my wedding shoes home to "finish them off"...or bedazzle them!

I knew from day one that I wanted to write something special on the bottom of my wedding shoes.  We had already used this idea in our Save the Date photo by putting the wedding date on the bottom of our shoes in the picture and I thought it would be cute to tie that in for the BIG DAY!  Some brides write the words "I DO" or their wedding date, or even their names in sparkling rhinestones.  When Mr. Hess and I created a logo with our monogrammed HBSH initials, I knew that's EXACTLY what I wanted to do.

I knew it wouldn't be the easiest thing, but I was determined...and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  It may not be the most time efficient way to spend wedding planning hours, but believe me - this was just the mental release I needed.  Some might get frustrated with the tedious task of gluing every single little stone on the shoe just right, but to me it was relaxing.
 I wish everything was like bedazzling! ;)

I hate to toot my own horn on this, but I'm seriously impressed with how they turned out...and ladies, it's not as hard as it looks! Here's what you need to create your own Wedding Day Shoes.

• your perfect pair of heels (wouldn't work on flats)
• rhinestones (the smaller the better)
• Permanent Jewel Glue
• toothpicks
• paper towels 

You can order rhinestones online, but I just picked up a few packs of rhinestones from Michaels.  They come in all different brands, colors, shapes and sizes.  I chose to use the brand Crystazzi just because they had the small stones I was looking for and put a lot in one package for a good price.  They do sell swavorski crystals at Michaels, but this bride's been on quite the budget lately, so they proved to work just fine.

I bought a 3-pack of tacky glue that included the middle one being permanent jewel glue.  I wasn't sure how this would work on the bottom of shoes, and the glue didn't seem like it would work at first, but once it dried those stones stayed right where they needed to.  It's made to adhere jewels to fabric, but trust me...once it dries - you're golden!

I was getting worried when I could move the jewels around with my toothpick, but this also came in handy to move every stone exactly where it needed to be before it dried.  So, if you ask me it's the way to go over using superglue.

Bedazzling can be fun and a release of stress if you have a little bit of patience and time.  I actually looked forward to doing this project, and it took me about 3 full hours to do.

First, I stenciled the design I was going to be bedazzling onto my shoes with pencil on the soles of the shoes.  I was a little nervous about drawing on them, but the pencil line really helped me make the exact design I wanted.

Next, I laid out a paper towel and put the stones I would be using onto it, face down.  I put a dab of the jewel glue onto the paper towel (just be careful to put something under it so it doesn't go through onto your table).  From there, it was easy to take a toothpick, dip one end into the glue, and select the stone I was going to adhere to the shoe.

Like I mentioned earlier, the glue isn't going to immediately stick, so don't worry if it slips a little.  You can use this to your advantage by using the other side of the toothpick to move the stone on the penciled line exactly where it should go.

I decided to do the design facing the way I did so that when I'm wearing them my photographer can take a photo of them on and it will read the right way (from left to right).  If Scott and I were doing a kneeling bench at the ceremony (which we decided not to) I would have done the monogram facing the way that the guests would be looking at my shoes.

Stone by stone and letter by letter, you will get through it and the shoes you love will turn into your PERFECT wedding day shoes!  I know I am going to wear these shoes with the biggest smile on my face, knowing how much they mean to me.

 I hope this helped anyone who needed inspiration to get this look on their own...but if you have any questions at all, I love bedazzling, so let a sister know! ;)

DIY Bridal Party Tanks

Ever since Mr. Hess and I got engaged I knew I wanted to give something special to my bridesmaids for being a part of our wedding day.  At first, it was going to be the shoes they are wearing for their gift, but then it hit me: there's other things I wanted to give them that just might mean a little more and feel a little more personable...

I was in one of my bridesmaid (Britt)'s wedding last November, and for her Bachelorette Weekend we ordered the cutest Bridal Party Tanks.  I fell in love with the tank style and little ribbon accent of them and decided that THOSE are going to be the bridesmaid shirts I give my girls.

I went online and found a great website for this purpose called www.bridalpartytees.com.  I started from scratch by picking out the tank style, added the colors I wanted & chose the text of what I wanted the shirts to say.  I created the shirt I pictured in my head and figured I would add the bow later on when they came in.  I go to check out and BAM it hits me like a ton of bricks how ridiculously expensive this was going to be!  I mean, I have 9 beautiful bridesmaids...and this "extra" gift to them was something I really, really wanted them to have...but I just couldn't justify ordering them from this site.

Here we go...back to the drawing board.

A few days go by, and I'm thinking about where I can get the shirts I wanted for the price I can afford and then I had an idea!  DIY (and for those who aren't familiar with the acronym, DIY means Do It Yourself!) That's it...all I had to do was buy the tanks, create an image to print on them, and add the bow - seems easy enough, right?

Step 1 was finding the tanks I wanted, and honesty this was not an easy task.  I would find a tank I would love, but it would be either over the price range I wanted or not come in the sizes I needed.  After all I needed 12 of these babies!!!! (9 for my Bridesmaids, 1 for my Flowermaid, 1 for my future sis-in-law who was coming to the party & 1 for me!!!) After going from store to store in the mall, I decided to look online instead and FINALLY found Aeropostale.   Lucky for me, the weekend I placed my order for the bright pink tanks there was a sale going on as well so I got a pretty great deal!

Step one: find the tank top...DONE!

Next step? Customize an image onto the tank!

To begin, let me just say how awesome our friend Rusty is at graphic design! He is the original creator of our HBSH logo that we have been using everywhere throughout our wedding.  I knew I could go to him to create the perfect logo for each shirt I needed & like always he went ABOVE & BEYOND my expectations!  Here is the original image he sent me:

Pretty cool, huh?

I have said it before and I will say it again: Rusty is an amazing, fun & creative artist.  He has done several projects for both Scott and I along the way of planning our big day and I would recommend him for anyone looking for any kind of custom design work.  Here's his website for more info: www.est79graphics.com.

Now that we have the shirt and the logos it was time to figure out how to get one on the other.  After calling around and getting ridiculous quotes from printers (each wanted to charge me a separate set-up charge for printing each different logo), I was at a loss of where to go to stay on my budget.  Finally, after a suggestion via twitter, Scott and I were steered to a wonderful t-shirt custom design & printing company called Mother Falcon.

It's located in Thornton Park in Orlando and they were an absolute delight!  We were pleasantly surprised to find out when we walked into the store that A) They were HUGE Magic fans & had created TONS of funny custom Magic Tee's I've admired at games and B) They wouldn't charge me any kind of set-up fee for printing t-shirts for me!  YAY! :)  The only thing I was surprised on is that the shirts came back all white instead of the white & green colored logo, but they said that was because the green squiggles were too thin...Oh well!

So I dropped the shirts off and picked them up 2 days later, it was that easy! THANK YOU Mother Falcon!!

So we've got the tank, the logo, & a place to print.

After you've done all three of these things, the rest is pretty simple.  Here is what I needed to complete the look:

• Bridal Party Tank (with logo printed)
• Ribbon - preferably without wiring.  I used a bright lime green color that was 1 1/2" thick.
• Measuring Tape - I cut each ribbon 32"
• Scissors
• Lighter

With the exception of the tanks, you can find any of those items above at a craft store like JoAnns, or Michaels.  Once all supplies was in hand, it was time to set each shirt up and tie those big 'ol lime green bows!  First, I cut each ribbon so that they were all cut long enough and to avoid wasting any ribbon by having to re-cut.  I found 32" was the perfect length to cut the ribbon so that I could tie the bow onto the tank with ease and trim the ends later.

Next, start tying.  It sounds funny, but after a few fails attempts I figured out the easiest way to tie the darn thing to make it look pretty and sit the right way is actually tying it upside down.

Attach the bow to the tank by first making a knot (like you would when tying a shoelace) and place the first "bunny ear" like the picture above.  Loop the bow around like you're still tying your shoe and then situate the ribbon to lay with both "tails" facing down towards the shirt.  It takes a minute to make sure the bow is tight enough and in the right position to lay flat, but you'll get the hang of how to do it once you do the first one or two.

After the bow is attached to the shirt, I cut each end of the "tail" at an angle and burned the edges with the lighter so that the ribbon wouldn't fray.  This was an old trick I learned when I sewed my own pointe shoes and had to cut the ribbon to fit around my ankles.

Just don't burn your fingertips! ;)

*TIP: Don't burn the edges too long, or it will misshape the ribbon or burn it to an ugly brown color.  Simply graze the flame by the entire edge just enough to form a hard rubber like edging.

And, VOILA! There you have it:
 
Your own, customized Bridal Party Tank Tops. 

Wasn't that easy...enough?!

I agree that the bow is a bit overwhelming for some, but the shirts turned out adorable in pictures! All of my girls LOVED their surprise & I was so happy to have been able to customize and personalize a present for them.  Don't worry ladies, that is just 1 part of the bridesmaid presents...more to come later.

I had just as much fun doing the gift bags!

I hope this helped anyone who wants to create customized shirts for a group & doesn't want to spend an arm and a leg to do it.  Like I said, it would have been easier to just order them online, but this was way more fun & cost effective.

I'm pretty proud of how cute they turned out, if I do say so myself & I can't wait to see them all on my girls again for the BIG DAY!