Happily Ever After

Finally! Photos from Juliana's Craigslist wedding! {Here} you can read about planning a wedding via Craiglist from my featured guest blogger. The fall theme was adorable - she did a terrific job!

Wedding Details!

For those of you who have been anxiously waiting for photos of the wedding... the time has come! Enjoy!

I LOVE LOVE LOVED our letterpress invitations. :)

I made the menu stands using craft wire & fishing weights and designed the menus to match our invitations.

Here's a link to my "how to" for the moss letters. I think they turned out great!

I made the guestbook using Snapfish. It's basically an 8x10 photo album with a few blank pages.

My buy-1-get-1-free purple shoes!

Photos by Sallee Photography

My Fabulous Vendors:

Venue: Villa Antonia in Austin, Texas

Cake: Simon Lee Bakery

Floral: Coby Neal (The Flower Studio)

Photography: Sallee Photography

Lighting: ILIOS Lighting

Band: The Grooves

Hair and Makeup: Jen Hoover

The Dress: Blush Couture

Birdcage Veil: Emma's Bridal Boutique

The Craigslist Wedding

My good friend, Juliana, is currently planning her October wedding on a budget. As master of frugal internet shopping, she's doing most of it via Craigslist. Here are some of her tips.

Guest Blogger: Juliana Whiteside.

In this economy, more and more people are turning to budget-friendly shopping venues. Some surf Amazon or eBay and others venture out into the “real world” for garage sales. Many people love the bargains they can get at a garage sale but just don’t have the time. These are the people who Craigslist.

I, Juliana Whiteside, am a self-proclaimed Craigslist addict. I have been lucky enough to find many, many great things on the site. For example, I’ve purchased two couches, a media tower, end tables, and even a dog! But my extensive use of Craigslist doesn’t stop there.

I’m getting married next month and have a strict budget to adhere to. Like many young brides, I don’t have oodles of money to spend on photography, music, catering, cake, or decor. That’s where Craigslist comes in. As long as you shop wisely and ask the right questions, you can find amazing things on the site.

Here are some of my best Craigslist bargains:

The Officiate. Having just moved to a new town, we didn’t have a family minister to preside over the ceremony. The minister I found for my wedding uses Craigslist because it minimizes his yearly advertising costs and keeps his calendar full. Most wedding officiates will charge anywhere for $100-$200… mine only charges $75!

The Baker. Baking and decorating wedding cakes happens to be just a hobby for the (extremely talented) baker I found on Craigslist. The site allows her to offer amazing prices and make money off of her hobby. Wedding cakes can run anywhere from $500 to $2,000… and that’s not including delivery. The bride AND the groom’s cake (including delivery) only cost me $150.

The Photographer. The photographer I chose works in much the same way. Wedding photography is a second job that she does on weekends. As soon as her kids are grown, she plans to pursue her creative passion full time. My bridal portraits and wedding day photography (with two photographers) totals a mere $400.

The Dress. Okay, so what about the dress? I’ll admit… I definitely had trouble finding THE dress. In fact, I bought two off Craigslist and ordered one from eBay just because I couldn’t make up my mind. Lucky for me, all three dresses only totaled $359.

The Hairstylist. The hairstylist I found has been doing hair for her friends and family - for weddings, homecomings, and prom - for a long time. She wants to eventually turn her passion into a career, but for now Craigslist allows her to set affordable prices. Hairstyling for a trial session and day of cost me $70.

Many brides are also listing their old decorations as a package deal. Talk about one stop shopping! As an added bonus, after the wedding you can resell everything on Craigslist. Who needs 144 votive holders sitting around?

Some people may laugh or turn up their noses when I mention Craigslist but in the end, my pockets are still full. :)

Happy hunting!

Moss Letters "How To"

As you can see, I decided on the moss letters for the bride & groom chairs.
I've gotten a lot of feedback asking how to make them, so here it is!

{Final Product - minus the hanging ribbon}

This project is actually pretty messy - I would recommend opening up a plastic trash bag, almost like you would for a Christmas tree, and doing all of your cutting and gluing on top of that. It makes cleanup MUCH faster! Put your cutting board or a piece of cardboard inside it and bring the bag up around it.


This is what you will need: paper and a printer to print out your letter, florist foam, moss cloth, sharpie, scissors, tape, utility knife, hot glue gun, florist pins, ribbon, free time, and a big glass of wine.


I used instant green moss cloth instead of the usual free form moss for a clean, modern look. It's also much more green than ordinary moss.


I used a simple helvetica font (which has a lot of straight lines) - it makes cutting much easier. I printed mine 10" tall on regular copy paper, but you could also use cardstock. I would avoid script fonts unless you have a lot of free time on your hands. :)


Cut out your letter and tape it to the foam. Then use your sharpie to trace the outline onto the foam.


If you put a straight side of your letter up against a side of the foam, you don't have to cut that side. Time saver! Ex: I put the left side and bottom of my B in the left, bottom corner of the foam.


Cut in straight lines. Don't try to make your blade curve - it won't happen. Cut off your negative space to get closer to the letter. Notice how the garbage bag catches all of the excess. :)


Then make small cuts away from your letter so that when you begin cutting along your letter's edge, these pieces will fall away. It keeps your edge much cleaner. Make sure to change your blade pretty often. You will notice that if your blade get's dull, you will get a jagged edge instead of a clean cut.


Then you have your beautiful foam letters. Don't worry if your lines aren't completely smooth, you'll be covering them up with moss anyway. This project is very forgiving. If you accidentally take out a large chunk of foam. Stick it back on with a toothpick and hot glue... no one will know.


Spread out your moss cloth and center your letter face down. This will make the front of your letter completely smooth. Each of my 10" letters used one package of moss. (Total of 2 packages.)


Cut slits in your moss out away from your letter so that it will wrap around without folding.


Start on the more straight sides and fold the moss up and over your letter. Hot glue it to the foam and secure the larger pieces with a florist pin. We will hide these later. Continue around the letter, piece by piece. Cut the strips to fit up against each other like a puzzle.




It's ok if you can see lines. When you are finished, take your utility knife and gently scrape away some of the overlap so that the pieces blend into each other.


Use some of the scrap pieces to fill in the inside of the letter where your folded pieces didn't reach. Blend them into each other like above.


When your letter is complete, push a florist's pin (about 3/4 of the way in) into the back of your letter. Loop your ribbon through, then push it the rest of the way in. For my letters, I used two pins each, about 2" from the top of the letter.


You then use the ribbon to hang your letters! (Back shown)

Overall, it's a pretty easy project - just more time consuming than I had thought.
It's a great personal touch to your wedding decor!

Want to see more Mod How-To's? Visit our new site: www.DesignalaMod.com