Monday, February 25th, 2008
Reader poll: do you ever sneeze in your sleep? I woke up from sneezing last night and it occurred to me that I don’t remember that ever happening before. Well, I suppose it means that although it doesn’t feel like it today, spring is coming and my nose is very displeased with the contents of the air I am breathing and is fiercely revolting more every day.
Despite my nasal revolution, thinking of spring makes me think of ideas for weddings, like a wedding centered around hummingbirds and flowers. Vintage hummingbird charms could be incorporated into favors or place settings, pretty hummingbird patterns and imagery could lead the direction for invitations and thank you cards, and how cool would it be to do an origami hummingbird and flower centerpiece on each table, like this beautiful piece by my origami hero, Robert Lang? It’s so pretty!
[Images, clockwise from top left: Hummingbird and Trumpet Vine by Robert Lang, Wings on the Water Earrings, featuring vintage lucite beads by thefiligreegarden on etsy, hummingbird notecard on FSC certified paper printed with soy inks by jonesygreetings on etsy, Pewter Hummingbird Charms by avion on etsy, retro Seschat wallpaper from Wallpaper from the 70s.]
Friday, February 1st, 2008
I don’t have a great image of this idea because I haven’t had a chance to scan the magazine and this is the only photo on the web site, but I spotted something in last month’s issue of Readymade that I thought could work for decorating a reception table. It’s similar to the flowering branches I had in that it involves, branches, glass containers, and origami, but used differently. They took a branch and placed it in a short glass bottle, and then hung an origami crane from the branch. The result is so simple and pretty! I also think it would look nice to scale it up slightly–use a larger branch, and hang several origami birds from the branches in colors matching the rest of the wedding decor of course. Not a bad (or expensive) DIY decorating idea.
Wednesday, January 9th, 2008
[Photo: Gabe and the Cameras, by CVI Photography]
Today I get to share some exciting news about our wedding. A couple of weeks before our wedding, we were contacted by the Sundance Channel, who asked if they could film our wedding for their tv show Big Ideas for a Small Planet. After they assured us that they would be respectful and unobtrusive while filming our special day, and making sure it was ok with our wedding party who would also be on tv, we agreed to let them film us, so we could share the importance of having a green wedding with more people.
The filming went pretty well. It was funny having to repeat things a lot during our preparations so they could get footage of us doing certain things like making the origami branches and folding the favor boxes.
The episode is called "Gen Y" and will air on Tuesday, April 22nd at 9:00 ET. Here is some info from the press release:
Generation Y – the children of baby boomers, now in their late teens to early 20s - came of age to ever-louder warnings of climate change, resource depletion, and species extinction. It’s an eco-aware group, but also one inclined toward buying, eating, traveling and consuming more than any generation before. By blending environmentalism with consumerism, the life choices Gen Y is making right now – how they party, where they go to college, even how they get married – open a fascinating window onto how future generations will care for the earth.
I’m both nervous and excited about seeing the finished episode. I’m also extremely curious about how they edited hours and hours of footage into a ~4 minute segment of the show! My only hope is that the show brings more awareness about the impact that a wedding can have on people and the planet, and encourages others to make that impact a positive one instead of negative.
On a different note, I have to give a big thanks to Style Me Pretty for featuring our wedding! It is a huge honor to be featured on such a great blog, and one of my absolute favorite daily reads. Thanks again Abby!!
Saturday, December 22nd, 2007
The DIY contest is in full swing over at Style Me Pretty, and she has extended it into next week so she can feature more projects! There are some amazing projects posted so far (some images above), and after the contest, everything will go into a DIY gallery with instructions that she is putting together. I submitted a whole bunch of things from our wedding, including the hair pins I made, our origami decor, invitations, favor boxes, and more and several of them were posted this week!
The husband and I are off tomorrow to visit family so we’ll be back after the new year with more DIY tutorials, photos, green inspiration, and other ethical finds in the 2008. Happy Holidays everyone!!!
Monday, December 10th, 2007
I’ve been working on more tutorials for the handmade decor and other things from our wedding. I just added one for our origami flowering branch centerpieces. I got the idea to make these after I saw a beautiful photo in a Martha Stewart Wedding issue that featured real flowering branches used as centerpieces. I wanted to do something like that, but with red and blue origami lilies. The Marion Hatcher Center had the perfect glass vases for us to use, and we found plenty of branches in our back yard. The centerpieces turned out exactly the way I imagined, and these flowers will never wilt. After the wedding, some of them were given away, and my mom kept some for herself so none of them ended up in the trash. One of my favorite moments of pre-wedding preparations is when my mom, step-dad, Gabe, and I were all in the sewing room together, poking holes and attaching the wire to the flowers to get them ready to attach to the branches. It was a nice moment of family togetherness! Here is the direct link to the Origami Flowering Branch Centerpieces Tutorial (it can also be found in the DIY section).
Monday, December 10th, 2007
This is a tutorial for how to make flowering branch centerpieces using origami flowers.
Materials:
Small (75mm) origami paper in colors of choice
Thin silver wire
Branches
Glass pillar vases
Step one: make all of the origami flowers. I used the traditional lily because the simplicity of the flower allows it to be more easily folded at such a small size than other more complex models. They can also be made very quickly so making large quantities of them is easier than other flowers. For a spring-themed wedding, cherry blossoms would also be a good choice. The great thing about using origami flowers is that all flowers in all colors, real or imagined, are in season all year long. Estimate how many vases you will need and multiply that by about 6 flowers per vase to figure out how many flowers to make.
Step two: prepare flowers for attaching to branches. Cut lengths of silver wire about 4″ long. Take each piece of wire and form a loop at the end like in the drawing below. This will prevent the wire from going all the way through the flower. Then take a pin and poke a small hole in the bottom of each flower. Push the straight end of the wire through the hole from the top of the flower, so the loop ends up inside the flower and the straight end is sticking out of the bottom.
Step three: collect branches. Gather branches from your back yard, the park, or anywhere you can get them. Then break/shape them so they fit nicely in the glass vases. Choose ones that have a nice varied shape with lots of thin twigs as opposed to thicker, more straight branches.
Step four: attach flowers to branches. Wrap the silver wire around the branch to attach each flower. Place them all around the branch and point them in different directions for nice variation. Then gently put the finished flowering branch into the glass vase, and you are done! Origami flowering branch centerpiece is complete!
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
I remember the moment I decided I wanted a cupcake tower for our wedding cake. Long before Gabe and I were engaged, we were in the grocery store together, and I saw the most beautiful cupcakes with red frosting roses on the cover of a wedding magazine, and I knew that was what I wanted one day. Fast forward a few years and my mom sends me some photos of cakes our caterer has made and remarks that she likes the cupcakes the best. So we all agreed to have a cupcake tower, and we were told we could design it however we wanted! I put together some inspiration photos, notes, and sketches of our ideas and sent it off to our caterer.
I used the custom rollagraph stamp that we made to roll our pattern onto strips of colored paper, to tie them in with the invitations. I wish I had a photo from that afternoon, with every surface in our apartment covered in drying cupcake wraps. I cut the top edge of the wraps with a pair of scalloped scissors to make them more decorative. We also made small blue origami lilies to go in between each cupcake. The cake itself was vanilla, made with eggs from a local farm of course, and it tasted SO GOOD! The frosting, which I usually don’t eat because a lot of times decorative frosting is too sugary, was so delicious, I do not lie. I wish I could make cupcakes that taste that good, because then I could eat them again.
Thursday, November 1st, 2007
A while back I designed the boutonnieres for the men in the wedding using an origami orchid and two origami leaves. But I changed my mind about that design before the wedding (partly because my orchid-loving sister said while it looked nice, the leaves weren’t quite working for it and I agreed). Instead of leaves, I cut some thin strips of red origami paper and made a couple of loops and sprigs behind the flower, and added some wired pearl-drops in the center that my mom happened to have leftover from my other sister’s wedding. I finished it with brown floral tape over silver floral wire. The groom approved of the new design, and this is what the end result looked like. This could work with a simpler flower like the lily as well and they don’t take very long to make.
p.s. This time Gabe is wearing his actual tux, not a suit jacket and pajama bottoms.
Monday, October 15th, 2007
Today is Blog Action Day, a day on which thousands of bloggers around the world are writing about one topic: the environment, in an effort to raise awareness and “get everyone talking towards a better future.” Since this blog is about the environment pretty much every day, being a blog about planning an eco-friendly wedding, I thought what I could do is share someone else’s thoughts about green weddings since I share my own in every post. One of my awesome bridesmaids, Kateri wrote these lovely and poignant thoughts about the importance and meaing of a green wedding, and I couldn’t have said it better myself:
A wedding is about more than just that day, it is about a marriage. And a green wedding is about more than just making a statement or going along with a trend, it’s a way of life.
In planning a green wedding you are setting a precedence for your life together as a couple. A life full of nurturing and respect for not only each other but the world around you. It is about creating a world that you and your spouse want to live in and raise a family in.
The principles for making a marriage work are the same for caring for the environment: hard work, perseverance, awareness, love and compassion. I have seen these principles in everyday practice with Gabe and Thryn. Their commitment to each other, the environment, friends and family is an inspiration to us all!
I love you both dearly and feel privileged to call you not only friends but family.
[photo of an origami flower by Juliana Diaz]
Friday, August 31st, 2007
One week and one day until we get hitched! This will be my last post for a while since we’re leaving before the sun rises tomorrow with the hopes of encountering as little labor day weekend traffic during our 9 hour drive as possible. Next week will be filled with final preparations, appointments, parties, and my first ever professional massage! I feel pretty good about everything we’ve gotten done so far, and while I’m not kidding myself and thinking next week won’t be busy, I think we’ll be able to manage everything without going insane. Actually one of the smallest details has given me the biggest amount of relief and accomplishment. For over a year I have had a small amount of anxiety over whether or not I’d really be able to make my bouquet out of these very difficult roses (see origami roses post) like I want to, and look! I only have two more to make!
I’ll be back in a couple weeks with lots of photos and details about the big day!
Friday, August 24th, 2007
I finally found time to enter that inspiration board contest over at Style Me Pretty (she extended it to a second contest which is good because I didn’t have time to make this for the first one). Here is the inspiration board that I made for our wedding. Most of these images have been posted elsewhere on this blog. I honestly don’t think I have a chance at winning because there are some really gorgeous boards in the contest. But I had fun making something that reflects all of the things that have inspired me during this long planning process which will be over in just two weeks! I think the voting is today, so take a moment and check out all of the really pretty boards that other people have made and vote for your favorite.
On the list for this weekend:
go to Boordy Vineyards to see about some wine
design ceremony program, cocktail cards, table cards, karaoke request cards
print all of that stuff as well as the favor boxes
work on seating chart
make some origami flowers
email more people about more things
UPDATE: It looks like the voting for the contest goes until Friday so check out all of the awesome boards if you have time and vote for your favorite.
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
For the boutonnieres we’re using an orchid model with a couple of leaves. The leaves I sort of made up myself because I couldn’t find any diagrams for leaves that I really liked. They only look good from the front, but it’s ok since they won’t be very prominent where they are used. I might diagram them (after the wedding when I have more time). I bought brown floral tape and silver wire from the art supply store to put these together. This is a test I put together to see what one will look like. Gabe was nice enough to throw on a jacket and tie so I could see what they will look like. What you can’t see is that he’s wearing pajama bottoms with his suit jacket.
The diagrams for the Golden Slipper Orchid can be found at this website (top row).
Friday, August 17th, 2007
Three weeks until the wedding…on the to-do list for this weekend:
Make guest book
Make more origami and kirigami flowers
Start designing program
Print some thank you cards
Finalized song lists for DJ
Cut hair
Go to co-worker’s party
Determine final guest count
Email a lot of people about a lot of things.
Meanwhile, I’m taking a break and looking at some pretty photos of cupcakes by Kylie Lambert. She is so good at what she does! Looking at her cupcakes always puts me in a good mood.
[images by Kylie Lambert]
Thursday, August 9th, 2007
Here is a photo of some of the progress in Operation Origami Flowers. I had a major origami accomplishment this weekend that I don’t have a photo of though. Roses are my favorite flower (typical, I know, but I love them) and I want my own bouquet to be roses. Origami roses are notoriously difficult. There are a few good models, including the famous Kawasaki Rose, but I don’t really love any of them. I think the Kawasaki rose, while pretty, is too closed and I love big, open roses. Then I saw the Lang Rose. If you haven’t seen his website, be prepared to be amazed because this is an extremely talented man and I am truly in awe of his skills and creativity. As soon as I saw this rose, I fell in love. I felt both elated, and extremely depressed. Elated because there was a beautiful open origami rose, but depressed because I still consider myself a novice when it comes to origami and there aren’t even readily available diagrams for making this rose, just the crease pattern and I was completely new to crease patterns. However, after doing some research, I found an origami forum where some other very talented people were discussing their attempts and eventually successes with making the rose. After reading through the forum and looking at some of the helpful photographs they posted, I was able to make one! My first two attempts I made by printing the crease pattern and folding it, and finally with my third attempt, I made it from a blank sheet of practice origami paper (again, with the help of the forum to find the reference points for making the creases).
I’m only making 6 roses for my bouquet so I can take my time with them and try to make them well. My rose doesn’t look nearly as beautiful as Lang’s but how could it when he is WAY more talented with origami than I ever will be. But it looks like a rose and a bouquet of them will (I hope) look pretty. When I have a nice one made out of the red origami paper, I’ll take a photo of it.
Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
We’re making some progress with the origami flowers. My amazing maid of honor, one of the groomsmen, and even a co-worker of mine volunteered to help and have been making some flowers for us. Gabe and I spend every wednesday night making flowers together which is a lovely and fun way to spend part of the evening! We are using origami for everything, including the bouquets, centerpieces, and some overhead decorations. We chose a few different flowers to make, and I’ll eventually take photos of all of them. The ones above are the traditional lily, which will be used in the bridesmaids’ bouquets (in blue to contrast with their red dresses), the centerpieces, and to decorate the cupcake stand and cake table. Diagrams for the traditional lily can be found on the internet or in many origami books, and there are some variations in the instructions but they will all yield the same flower. It’s a pretty and fairly easy flower to make.
Friday, May 18th, 2007
In addition to origami flowers, I’m also making some kirigami flowers to decorate the table tops. These are flat cut out flowers that remind a lot of people of the paper snowflakes we made in elementary school. The technique for making them is similar, but a bit more…precise I suppose. At any rate, they are incredibly quick and easy to make. It takes about 5 minutes to make a simple and beautiful flower, or one could spend a bit more time to make more intricate designs. There are a few websites I found with the instructions, like this one. I’ll draw the templates for the ones I’ve made and add them to the DIY pages soon. I’m making about five for each table to “scatter” randomly around the centerpieces. After the wedding I plan to reuse them in several ways, including decorating the covers of my handmade journals, framing them to hang on the wall, and giving them away for people to use in scrapbooks or decorations of their own.
Tuesday, March 13th, 2007
We love cupcakes because there are so many beautiful and fun possibilities for cupcake trees, and they are easy to serve of course. Just think about how beautiful a tree of Hostess Cupcakes would look! Just kidding. Our cake(s) will be made by our super-cool caterer of course. Here are some of our inspiration photos and ideas for our cake:
I love cupcakes with pretty paper wrapped around them. I want to take one of the patterns I’m designing for our invitations and adapt it to a lovely wrap to put around the cupcakes (love to tie elements together with details like that). I also think it would be nice for each cupcake to have a sugar rose on the top, maybe all red or maybe blue and red, I don’t know yet. And finally, I want to use some of our origami flowers to decorate in-between the cakes and around the table.
image credits: drawings by Gabe, my handsome groom; bottom row from left to right–Martha Stewart Wedding (Fall 2006); Little Venice Cake Company; Alice’s Tea Cup; Little Venice Cake Company
Sunday, March 11th, 2007
Ok so we’re a little behind on this because the end of the month was about 12 days ago. We have 6 months until the wedding now. This month we finally chose our photographer, and I also picked out my wedding gown…pattern that is. My amazing and talented mom will be making my gown, and I’m so excited about it! To have my wedding dress made by my own mother is more special than anything I could have found in a store. We also began designing our save-the-date cards, invitations, and other printed items, and screen printed some thank you cards. And I added a bunch of new links to the blogroll for my favorite design and eco blogs that I read for inspiration. I still have more to add but that’s farther down on this month’s to-do list. Coming soon, stuff about cakes, fair trade dresses, and origami flowers…
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Well, we have a little over 8 months to go, so it’s about time to get all of the big stuff taken care of right? That way we can focus on some of the more fun aspects of planning this little shindig (like making all of the origami flowers (what?! yes, that’s what we’re doing, photos of our progress coming soon)). So far we have the venue of course, and we just secured the dj/kj (karaoke jockey).
Here are couple of cool website I’ve found helpful for planning and inspiration. IndieBride is a nice site with interesting articles and forums for brides to share stories and advice for planning the less-than-traditional wedding. And DIYBride is a blog where people share wedding-related do-it-yourself projects. We’re doing almost everything ourselves because we’re artists/designers of course (creativity makes up for limited financial resources). We’re even making all of the food and drinks ourselves—frozen burritos and nachos with beer brewed in our bathtub. Just kidding. Food and drinks will be prepared by professionals.
Still a few things left on the to-do list for this month…which is over in a few hours…so maybe we’re a touch behind, but nothing to really worry about yet. Flash forward 6 months: my future self is hating me for saying that.
