Jill & Matthew's Rustic Rock Fall Wedding!

How They Met: These adorable darlings met when Jill posted an extra ticket to Ryan Adams on Craigslist. Matthew was the first one to respond that he wanted it, and they ended up sitting next to each and chatting through the concert. They exchanged numbers after the show and couldn't stop chatting that night. The rest, as they say, is history.

Their Theme: They chose fall colors for their September wedding and labeled each table after a concert they had been to together. It fit perfectly with the rock-club venue of the Bottom Lounge, in the West Loop of Chicago.

Thanks: These guys were super mellow and very crafty (they made all the candle holders out of wine bottles! All of them!!). We are so happy to have worked with them on their incredibly special day. Love you guys!

Fruit Centerpieces

A simple, cute and affordable way to create your own centerpieces is through using fruit and flowers.

To make one, you will need:

- a clear vase

- fruit of your choice (citrus fruit are a popular option, though grapes can work really well for holding flowers straight, and more exotic fruits like kiwi are fun and unexpected)

- flowers (silk or real - depends how much time you have on the day of to make these)

If you're using tall, long-stemmed flowers you will want to leave your fruit intact (i.e. use whole lemons instead of slicing them) in order to give the flowers a base to stand within. If you're using full heads of flowers (like peonies or sunflowers) you can remove the majority of the stem and slice your fruit to float within the vase.

NOTE: If you are using water (as you will need to if using fresh flowers and/or sliced fruit), beware of the floating to the top issue. With full-headed flowers, the floating will look nice as it will fill the top of the vase. However, make sure you are slicing your fruit different thicknesses so they don't all float to the same place in the vase.

If you want to avoid the floating issue, use silk flowers and whole fruits. Craft stores sell some great silk flowers that will look great both at a distance and up close, and the fruit will allow for a fun contrast if you're trying to work in several colors.

The Wedding

It happened! And, thankfully, no major disasters. Only 2 minor ones to speak of:

1. My 68-year-old aunt ate nothing but ice cream before the wedding, then began double-fisting on caipirinhas (a Brazilian drink which disguises a glass full of sugar-cane rum with a tsp of sugar and a few drops of lime) in the heat. I love that even in your 60s you can still make amateur drinking mistakes. She fainted into the arms of a friend and had to be rushed back to the hotel where some A/C and water awaited.

2. My husband left our rings at the hotel. Thankfully, his best man got to be the hero and loaned his and his wife's rings as our placeholders. But the upside was that his best man was also his brother and his brother's wife had the family heirloom ring. I got to wear it (at least for a few hours) as my ring too!

Hope you enjoy the photos and they help inspire any black & white wedding dreams of yours!

Table Number Fun

If you saw my previous centerpiece post, you know that I am trying to use DIY record bowls as the basis for my centerpiece. This can quite easily go into ticky-tacky-kindergarten-craft-land. So in an attempt to make the tables look cohesive, I've decided to use 45s with DVD labels as my table numbers.

I thought this was a brilliant idea until I realized a) the DVD labels covered too much of the record and I'd have to somehow slice out the center to match the 45 and b) the memo clip holders I bought to hold the table numbers work great for paper but not for something as heavy as a small record.

I scrounged around and using the magic of nail scissors I was able to slice the center of the DVD labels without tearing the labels. And by pulling the metal clip part of a binder clip out, I was able to make a stand for the 45 that looks super incognito.

Now I have a cohesive table setting! Or at least the beginnings of one...

Vinyl Record Bowl Centerpieces (or Fuck the Flowers)

As you may have noticed from a tweet last week, I am completely obsessed with record bowl making. What prompted this, you may ask. I'll tell you: flowers are freaking expensive.

If you are planning a wedding, a wake, a large-scale mother's day event or an epic apology, you may already know this.

If you are, as I was, a novice to the whole floral industry, it may shock you to find out that if you want anything beyond what the Piggly-Wiggly is carrying that day, you will be asked to pay in first-born children. Because of a long story that I will not bore you with here, I am obliged to have flowers for my and my bridesmaids' bouquets. I selected a single rose "bouquet" for each of 3 ladies. The total was $60. For 3 roses. Yup. And that is CHEAPSIES, friends.

Because I am not a millionaire nor insane, I decided that there had to be a more budget-friendly and interesting non-floral centerpiece that I could create. Knowing my and my boyfriend's love of music, as well as our black & white theme (sidebar: why does anyone NEED a theme? isn't getting married enough?) a friend of mine suggested vinyl record bowls.

I have been obsessed ever since.

So I thought I'd help out and post some instructions in case you too want these little babies on your tables - event, home or otherwise.

RECORD BOWL INSTRUCTIONS*

* Each oven is different. I recommend trying with a record you don't mind ruining first, then moving on to the "real" record(s).

(If you do not have a cookie tray, line your oven rack with aluminum foil before beginning.)

Pre-heat the oven to 210 degrees Farenheit.

Place your record on a ceramic bowl that is large enough for the record to balance on easily but still small enough that the record will be able to hang over the edge a bit as it gets warm and plyable.

Place the ceramic bowl on a cookie tray or the aluminum foil. If you put it on the cookie tray, put the cookie tray in the oven. (If you put it on the foil, your bowl is already in the oven. And if you need me to point that out, you should probably have some supervision.)

Keep the record in the oven for about 5-8 minutes. KEEP AN EYE ON IT. Seriously. Once the record starts folding down towards the cookie sheet or foil it is plyable.

Remove the cookie sheet/ceramic bowl from the oven. Place it on a towel or safe surface. Use a small ceramic mug or bowl to press down in the center of the record so that the record falls inside the ceramic bowl and folds up around the smaller mug or bowl. (See photo at top of this posting for what it should look like.)

Let it hang out for about 10 minutes until completely cooled.

Bowl made.

Hope you enjoy this!!!

(p.s. my boyfriend is totally singing "feed my breast" to the tune of beauty & the beast's "be my guest" while i write this. ladies and gentleman: the man with whom i will be spending the rest of my life.)