Have a Happy Holiday! Updates and Our Wedding Website Information for Family and Friends.

This has been a very busy last few weeks for Justin and I, between building Christmas gifts, work, and hunting season for Justin.  I did, however, get some things accomplished. I started to design the invitations, made our wedding website, and made some prototypes for our twig bubbles. I will post some more tutorials when things calm down a bit.

For friends and family, this is the link to our website.
 www.weddingwire.com/BrittanyandJustinWedding
We will be updating it as we get closer to the wedding and know more detailed information. You can find information about the location, directions, find the link to the app we are using for sharing your favorite photos of us on our special day, request songs for the DJ to play, and soon we will have detailed information about attire, timing etc. So please keep checking back for updates. If you have any questions feel free to ask them on here or email me.

In the meanwhile, here is a preview of the twig bubbles. There are some imperfections in them that need to be fixed, but I am already pretty happy with them. How many of you would have guessed these are bubbles? :)

Also, the pictures on our site should start to improve! My mom and step dad bought me a camera for Christmas. I can now get better pictures of our projects. The above pictures are from my new camera, it will take some getting used to, but they are already better than the iPhone pictures we have been posting.

Have a happy and safe holiday everyone! Thanks for taking the time to read our blog. Again, I am hoping to get another tutorial on here soon.

How I Use Coconut Oil, Castor Oil, and Rosemary Oil to Help With Hairloss, Dry Scalp, and Damaged Hair.

This post is about a mixture I have been using on my hair for the last few weeks. Coconut Oil, Caster Oil, and Rosemary Oil. This may seem like a random post to put on this DIY Wedding Blog. However, I have been terrified for months about having to get a wig to wear to the wedding. I am sure there are other brides and women out there that suffer from the same issue. I have a thyroid condition that makes my hair fall out to the point that every time I would wash my hair, I would clog the shower drain. Stress also does not help the situation with my hair loss. The vacuum cleaner at work and home is nothing but my hair when I run it, and every time I run my fingers through my hair, some falls out. I also suffer from either a dermatitis or psoriasis on my scalp. It is very itchy and very embarrassing. I tried several different prescription products and shampoos to help with the dry scalp, they either didn't work or were temporary fixes. This mixture is the first thing I have tried that has helped this much. I found information about these oils online while desperately searching for something to help with my hair loss.

A Preview of Our Newest Project!

We started with our first fallen tree today for the candle holders. We are not sure when we will continue with this project since I did not decide on the size of the candles, but this is the start of some of our candle holders. Check back for updates.

Thank you.

I Made the Moss Table Numbers of My Dreams!

Ever since I started my nature themed wedding I have been admiring the moss table numbers on Pintrest and Etsy. I did not want to pay the prices for the numbers so I decided I would DIY them. I understand why they are expensive to buy.  The cost of the moss adds up and they take time to make.
The DIY moss table numbers were worth it in the end. Continue reading for step by step instructions and tips on how to make them.


So how did I make the moss table numbers for less? I shopped at Michael's Arts & Crafts and used some coupons. It still was more costly than buying or making paper ones, but I did save some money by making them myself. Here is how I did it.

Materials Needed:

• Wooden Numbers The Size of Your Choice
• Wooden bases. Small for single digits and large for double digits.
• Preserved Moss Matt or Table Runner with the Mesh Backing
• Glue Gun
• Glue Sticks. LOTS of Glue sticks!
• Newspaper to protect the surface you are working on.
• Scissors
• X-acto Knife or Utility Knife
• Tooth Picks or another object to poke the moss with to prevent burning your fingers
• Bucket of cold water with ice. I will get to the reason why later.

How to Make Small Wood Slices for Coasters

In August, we made wood slices for the coasters for our wedding, and I did not get the chance to make the post until now. It is very easy to do, and you can use different tools to cut the wood slices, it all depends on your preference and the type of tools you own.

Tools we used:

• Miter Saw or Reciprocating Saw - either one will work, the miter saw is much faster.
• Gloves
• Saftey Glasses
• Sand Paper
• Stain
• Paint Brush
• Plastic Drop Cloth

First we went into the woods to find a dried out branch or tree to use that was the thickness that we were looking for. We were able to find two trees that had some good parts to use. Dried wood is better to use than fresh because it will not warp as easily. The difference is the bark is much more likely to be gone or fall off, and you are more likely to have rot. But you will not have to chop a tree down to do this. I like using fallen trees because it recycles the tree!

We started trying to use a reciprocating saw. It works, but it takes longer to use. We were able to get thin slices for this method, so if you don't have a miter saw, or are not comfortable using one, this is a good alternative. You could also probably use a band saw.

The cheapest tool to buy out of the three if you don't have any of these tools would be the reciprocating saw, then the miter saw, with the band saw being the most costly. You can use either to get the same product.

First we tried using the reciprocating saw. I held the tree while Justin cut. It vibrated way too much and took too long so we decided on the miter saw method. Which also worked but resulted in thicker slices. Partially because Justin's dad didn't know how thin we actually wanted them. It does add a more rustic feel to them having them be thicker and different sizes.

Updates!

I have been working long days and a second job on Friday nights so I have not been able to post on here for a few weeks, however, I have not slowed down on the projects!

Projects I have been working on include:
The Acorns
Moss Table Numbers
Making the pocket folds for our invitations.
Finding trees to make tea light candle holders.

The moss table numbers are finished, and the acorns are still a work in progress. I would like to finish some of them this weekend though so I can finish the post about the acorns. So look for that soon.

The posts I will making in the near future are as follows:
Finishing the Acorns
Wood Coasters
Moss table numbers
Pocket folds

I am going to look for my dress on Saturday so that will take away from some crafting time, but it is much needed girly time!

Check back soon and thank you for reading!

Preserving Acorns for Decorating

Since we have been planning for our wedding, I have been searching the web for some type of confetti to put on the tables. I kept finding cute little leaves but they were almost all fall leaves. Nothing summery. While we were on a walk at Justin's grandmother's house enjoying the fall foliage last weekend, I picked up a big brown acorn with the cap on it. I said to Justin "Aww it's the perfect acorn!" and then it dawned on me. We can use Acorns. Yes, they still say fall, but they are free and so cute!

So we walked up to his grandmother's house and got three gallon sized bags and started picking them up.

It is best to start collecting acorns around the time they are falling, not later in the season like we started. This ensures they are fresher, shinier, and are less likely to have bugs!

When searching for your acorns, try to find the acorns with caps, even if they are not attached a lot of the time you can find them laying near by it's matching acorn. Most of the caps will come off in the drying process anyways, so as long as you find a matching cap you are good to go!

Updates

I will be making a post very soon about how we made our coasters. I have been working almost nightly on cleaning jars for our tree favors. I will also be posting a how to for that because it has been a process removing those labels!

The next couple projects we would like to do are:

Large wood slices
Finish the jars for tree slices
Moss table numbers


We have been purchasing lots of apothecary jars at Michael s the last couple days. They will be for our moss terrariums for the centerpieces. We did make two tester terrariums about a week and a half ago to see if they would survive and for how long. I will also post some pictures of those and how we made them up quick.

Check back for updates!!


Brittany

How to Make a Grape Vine Wedding Arch Final Steps

The arch is finished!!! Sorry it took me a month to update this blog but it literally took me the entire month to finish the arch. It ended up being a lot of work for one person and I only had the weekends to finish it. Justin's back is pretty bad and he can not bend forward so this project became mine from a certain point on due to the sitting and bending involved. If you are attempting this at home, I would definitely recommend using sawhorses to raise your arch up to hip height. My back started to get sore while working on it.

Weekend after weekend I continued to wrap the vines around the arch. I will post pictures in the order they were taken to finished so you can see how we progressed. I apologize ahead of time for all of the pictures. However, I wanted to show you the progress of the arch the best way I could. I basically continued to attach vines to vines and vines to metal until the thickness was where I wanted it to be and even. Once I got to a certain point I started to cut the vines long enough to cover the sides separately and the top separately. It made more use of the vines so that I would not run out and it helped the vines stay more consistent with thickness throughout the entire arch.

How to Make a Grape Vine Wedding Arch Part Four

We worked for another weekend straight and really have gotten further on the wedding arch. I did not however get any measurements because Justin was not with me very much. I will see if I can get measurements of the metal on the inside of the arch next weekend.

Justin's family had a camp out at his grandmother's house this weekend. While they had the camp out, I kept working on the arch well into dark Saturday and the whole day on Sunday since we ended up sleeping over at Mammy's due to Justin having too much to drink haha. It was pretty chilly outside on Saturday so progress was slow. However I managed to get a decent start. I will list the tools and materials I used to weave the vines onto the arch.

Tools and Materials Needed:

• Gloves
• Green Floral Wire
• Jute Twine
• Wire Cutters
• Pliers
• Small Hand Pruners

This part of the arch process I was in charge of and I pretty much just figured it out as I went along.

I started by getting the longest vines and using the green floral wire and wire cutters I laid the vine along the arch the way I wanted it and then cute approximately 4 in. of wire and wrapped it around the metal and vine as tight as possible and twisted the two ends together. I then clipped off the excess wire and wrapped it around the metal rod.

I apologize for the quality of my pictures this week. They are not the greatest and I forgot to take pictures of many of the steps.

Slowly but surely I kept wrapping the longer vines onto the arch. In the beginning, I weaved what I could in between the rungs of the arch. I found that it was not a necessary step since with out doing this I was able to sit inside the arch and attach the vines with the wire.

How to Make a Grape Vine Wedding Arch Part Three

On Sunday September 8, we finished assembling the metal arch. In order to do this we had to insert the two sides of the arch into the ground. We needed to make sure they were exactly 4 ft. apart from one another and as close to square as possible. We inserted the arch into the ground hitting the stabilizers with a hammer. They work very well as long as your not putting the arch into stone, if you try to hammer them into stone they will bend. Originally we tried to put it together in the driveway which did not work due to the stone. We put the sides in the grass to assemble it so it worked out very well.

 In order to keep the sides square we ended up using the wash line prop rod to keep the one side straight up. We were on a slight incline which caused the side to lean. Use anything you can to keep the sides straight.

Next, we needed to tack on the top of the arch to sides to make sure they are as close to square as possible when we weld it together permanently. Tacking is just pulling the trigger of the welding gun long enough to fuse the two pieces of metal together. This is not where we fully welded the arch to the sides due to safety and the type of welder we used. It is not good for overhead welding which is what Justin was doing here. We ended up backing the truck into the yard for the front side of the arch and using a step stool to stand on the back side of the arch for welding. I do not recommend doing this. You can fall off of the truck or it also poses a fire hazard with the gas tank. This step requires knowledge of welding.

How to Make a Grape Vine Wedding Arch Part Two

Justin and I spent the entire last weekend working on our wedding arch. We got a lot accomplished in only two days!

I left off with my last post about how to take the leaves off the vines and prepare them for wrapping the arch. I was able to get a few good photographs of the "curly things" or tendrils I mentioned and the finished piles of vines.


You do not want to cut the "curly things" or tendrils off of the vines when cutting the leaves off. It adds to the look of the vines and you can use them to hang the decorations on the finished product.

Making Our Grape Vine Wedding Arch

Today we spent the entire day preparing our wedding arch.  We have had many people ask us, "Why start so early?" "You have a whole year?" . Well when you are doing as many DIY projects as we are, something as time consuming as this needs to be started early. Also grape vines need time to dry before they get that nice deep brown look. Yes, some of them are brown already when they are harvested, but many of the ones I picked are still green, so they will need time to dry. I will list step by step how we are making this arch.


We got our inspiration for our arch on Confetti Daydreams. The grape vine garland arch is beautiful but we wanted to create something more sturdy to call our own and keep for years to come.


We decided to make the arch out of natural grape vines and  make the structure from scratch out of steel rods. We chose natural grape vines to save money and to make it out of steel rods instead of buying one because most wedding arches are made out of tubing which is not very sturdy. Plus we can make it our own and say, "Yes, we made that!".

Step One: Find Vines

First we had to find grape vines, which we did not have to go very far to find since Justin's grandmother's land has a lot of them. Ask family members or friends if they have any growing on their property. Here in Pennsylvania, there are lots of grape vines in our woods. Chances are, your friends or family may be happy to have you remove the vines from their property.  I also am glad that I decided to do this, because the vines were starting to kill many of the trees that they were wrapped around on Justin's grandmother's property.

Our Wedding Blog

Hello Friends, Family and Readers!

Justin and I will be posting updates about our DIY wedding projects and wedding planning on this site. I do plan to make a regular wedding site to go with this one that has information about our wedding and updates.

Our wedding is to be a nature inspired outdoor wedding. Our ceremony and  reception will be at the same location. At the gun club my family has run since long before I was born. It has beautiful fields in the middle of the forest on the side of the mountain, and not many people get married there, so it will be perfect for Justin and I since we did not want to get married inside, or at a location that is commonly used and we can make our ceremony and reception completely our own.


We are doing our decorations and many other aspects of our wedding DIY. My father is making  homemade wine and will be cooking for the rehearsal dinner. We are also making the drinks, appetizers, fruit trays, and salads for the cocktail hour and reception ourselves. Originally our wedding was to be completely self catered since my father is an experienced cook. However, with a guest list of over 130 people, it would not have allowed much time for him to enjoy the wedding. So we opted for getting a caterer instead. We will be having almost the same meal that my father would have prepared, so it works out well in the end with him being able to enjoy the day and still being able to make some type of contribution to the food for our big day.

The things we will not be doing our selves are the following:

• The Wedding Cake
• Photography (Not something we wanted to risk skimping on)
• Disc Jockey
• Catering for the main course

Mostly everything else will be hopefully DIY.

Today we spent the entire day working on our wedding arch. I will post in a post after this one about how it is coming along. We are making it completely from scratch. Justin is a welder and is welding the arch from steel. Rather than buying a flimsy one made from tubing that will pose a risk of falling over. The arch will be covered in grape vines which with the help from some friends, we are picking ourselves at his grandmother's homestead. We will probably spend half of the day tomorrow trying to get further along in that project.


I hope to keep up to date with this  blog. I will be posting various posts including pictures and how to instructions to create many of the decorations we are creating.