Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Elegant and Inexpensive Tagged Wedding Guest S'more Packets and Sparklers for Send-Off

I have been creating lots of things over the last few months, but haven't had time to post until now.  I will begin posting tips and projects from our November 2014 wedding over the upcoming weeks.  I hope you enjoy them and get inspired if you are planning a wedding but don't want to spend a lot!

We held our ceremony and reception/dinner at Grand Superior Lodge in Two Harbors, MN on Lake Superior.  I highly recommend it for a family or romantic getaway.  The views are spectacular and if you get a lakeside room, you can enjoy the view for even more of your stay!  We had gotten engaged during a stay there a year before our wedding, and ultimately decided to have our wedding there for a few reasons.  We love Lake Superior and wanted to give our families and friends a good excuse to visit the beautiful North Shore and the resort offered amazing specials for weddings held there in their off season.  That might be an obvious tip, but I want to point it out anyway...check non-peak seasons and days for your wedding.  It literally saved us, at a minimum, $5,000!!

When I began planning and my vision for the wedding, two things I really wanted to offer that evening were s'mores for our guests (the resort hosts a nightly fire pit out on the patio so it was perfect) and sparklers for a send-off at the end of the night.  I started looking at the cost of tags, packaging, etc on wedding sites, Etsy, and in craft stores.  It became clear pretty quickly that nice tags in colors I wanted could easily cost me over $100 for the s'mores and sparklers.  No way I was spending that.

So, how did I get around it?  It all started with an email for free address labels from Shutterfly.  I found a design I liked and changed the usual name and address lines to the text I wanted.  I got a couple of my friends and family to order the free labels too so I had enough for both projects.  After S&H they were actually a little over $3 for each 24 labels and we ordered a total of 3 sets (72 labels) for each project. so $18 for a total of 144 labels!

Next, I had to figure out how to convert that into tags, and cheaply.  One day I spotted packs of 16 scrolled edge cardboard tags with twine.  There were two sizes in each pack (8 of each), so I bought enough packs that I would have 72 of each size (9 packs.)  These were only $1 a package in the dollar bins in the front of the store alongside the checkouts.  I wanted them to be more elegant than the cardboard color allowed for, so I took them home an spray painted one side of them with the Rust-Oleum Bright Coat Gold Metallic Finish paint I used for many of my wedding decorations.  They looked gorgeous!  The way the paint covered the fibers in the cardboard made it look like gold leaf!

When I tried putting one of the address labels on the smaller tags I found out it was too big and it looked tacky (like it was indeed an address label stuck to a tag), so I used a pair of scissors with scalloped edges to cut out each label and then stuck them to the tags.  My scissors were Fiskars I bought online from Amazon for about $4.  The cutting out process was a bit tedious at times, but the end result was lovely!





The final touches on the tags were replacing the plain twine that came in the package with eggplant colored twine from Michael's.  On the sparkler tags I also needed to use a hole punch to make a second hole so I could thread the sparklers through the tags (see above image.)

To finish the sparkler display, I found a galvanized bucket with handles at a thrift store and spray painted it with the Rust-Oleum Bright Coat Gold Metallic Finish paint I mentioned above.  I painted a card board cut-out I got at Michael's with chalkboard paint, wrote on it with a chalk marker, and attached it to the bucket with gold cord tied around the handles.  I then used eggplant ribbon (I bought a huge roll of at a thrift store for 99 cents) to make bows for each handle.  I put a piece of foam I had laying around in the bottom so I could create and arrangement that stayed put by sticking the sparklers in to it.  The sparklers we decided on were these 20 inch gold sparklers from Superior Celebrations.  They were fabulous!



Photo by: Erin Sather From the Woods Photography



I waited until about a week before the wedding to put my s'more packets together so they would be fresh.  I purchased a large thin storage container to seal and haul them in to help keep them fresh and protected too.  I found treat bags at Michaels.  The package I found had 100 bags for only a few dollars.  I put a paper towel folded into a little square in each one, two squares of graham crackers, a strip of a Hershey's chocolate bar, and a couple of marshmallows.  I tied a bow with the smaller size tags I had made around the top of the treat bags and made an arrangement of them on a cupcake stand and gold chargers at the reception.


Photo by: Erin Sather From the Woods Photography


I apologize in advance for the blurry pic below, but I wanted to mention that for the very small children at the wedding I got large glow sticks and attached gold curling ribbon to them.  I found another galvanized bucket (a little smaller than the sparkler one) and spray painted that too.  The parents with very little ones were very appreciative and our infant daughter loved hers as well!



My final tips are regarding logistics of the sparklers.  Both for safety and to make sure we had enough sparklers for everyone during the send-off at the end of the night, we put a sign asking guests not to take them until the DJ announced it was time at the end of the night.  We also had the best man ask the guests not to take them before the DJ's announcement in his speech.  We also had the DJ remind everyone it was coming up about 15 minutes prior so they could grab their jackets and such if they were not in the ballroom.  My uncle lead the send-off giving a few safety and disposal instructions (LIKE REMOVING THE TAGS FIRST!!  VERY FLAMABLE!!) and guided everyone in singing "This Little Light of Mine" to us.  It was such a sweet ending to an incredible day!



Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Connectedness

I just heard this on a rerun of a Queen Latifah show on which Gloria Steinem was her guest.  Her words struck a chord with me so I thought I would share.  "As human beings we are made to believe that we are ranked, not linked, and we are linked."  - Gloria Steinem 

Here is to hoping this blog helps more people feel linked!

Life with Little Lumen

So very much has changed since my last post and my initial plan for this blog!  I am newly married, have had a daughter who is now one, and have moved south of the metro area.  I have shifted gears, but I guess that is the intention behind this blog... tapping in to the joy that can be found by rearranging our lives as old things fall apart.  

After years of working outside the home, being a single parent of two almost grown boys, and having a pretty regular yoga practice and self-care routine, my life was shaken up with a new little one gloriously dictating my days.  Not only was I a lot younger when I had my boys, but they also have much more easy going personalities!  It has literally taken me a year to start re-claiming my health, my sleep, and my "new" identity.  I have had to re-purpose the pieces of what I thought I was and what my life was about into something even more fabulous (albeit exhausting!) than I could have imagined.    

I now stay at home and would like this blog to become a resource and discussion board for health conscious and environmentally friendly households and families.  I would like it to evolve organically, so although I have my vision of what I would like it to be like, I have no idea what exactly it will become.  I would like feedback from visitors to help determine that.  That being said, if you happen across this blog and are interested in the same things, please comment and follow as I build momentum!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

No news is good news???

For those of you following the blog, sorry for the hiatus.  I have been so busy with the new job that I haven't taken the time to post anything for over a week!

I feel frustrated sometimes lately.  I am only a few weeks from 40 and when I was younger I had envisioned my life as being so much more "together" by now.  Not that it is "apart," but perhaps my understanding of what brings me joy and changes in what I value are just so different that it is hard to compare what I thought my life would be and what it is.

At any rate, here I am.  As forty knocks on my door and the last 12 months have brought more changes to my life than ever...I can't help but wonder what the next decade of my life has in store.  What wonderful things might manifest from this glorious debris??? 

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Happy Heart Day

Instead of focusing on the mass marketed perception of the day, let's focus on having happy hearts today.  Think of all the things you have to be grateful for, all the beauty around you (which here includes a layer of white from the snowfall yesterday!), and extending kindnesses to others who may be in need, or perhaps are lonely, hurting, or sad. 

So often I hear people lament the fact that they are alone on Valentine's Day or didn't get enough from that special someone in their life.  What if it wasn't about that today?  What if we took the focus off of ourselves and instead made it a day of gratitude and selfless giving to others.

Why not try shooting your positive energy out like Cupid's arrow and see what it can do?  Please share any great stories about how it turns out!

Of course all this being said, it is still perfectly acceptable to use today as an excuse to indulge in a little too much chocolate.  ;)

Monday, February 13, 2012

Here's to New Beginnings

Today I have a external new beginning as I start a new job.  It doesn't take something like that though.  Each day, each hour, each second we have the opportunity to create change in our life, alter our path, shift our view...it really is that simple. 

Some of us become so ingrained in our habits and ways of thinking that we see the ability to manifest change as impossible, or at best way too difficult and complicated.  I have found that it really just comes down to a willingness to take a few moments to set the intention for the change you would like to see and then releasing that intention out into the universe.  Just hand it over to whatever you believe in...something greater than yourself.  Often our clinging to the thoughts of how badly we want change actually prevent that change.  We are giving all our energy to the thoughts that we will fail in our efforts.  Try giving the energy to the thoughts that your intentions can, and will result in the change you wish to create.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Be Kind

Yesterday I was reminded of how just simple kindness and genuine listening are the best gifts you can give another person.  As I worked my last day with my previous employer, I received numerous hugs and words of gratitude from the diverse group of people I worked with about how much they appreciated the way I treated them.

I didn't think I was doing anything exceptional, yet it touched so many people in such profound ways.  I strive to live my life with intention and integrity and yesterday I felt reassured that the energy I offer is making a difference in many people's lives.  I feel bursting with a feeling of inner contentment to know that what I aspire to give out is being received.  It reaffirms for me that each of us can make a difference, every moment, of every day. 

I am sure you all have examples of time when something seemingly insignificant had a significantly positive and meaningful impact on another.