Poems and Ribbons: Crafting My Way Into the Hearts of My Maids

As mentioned in my previous post, when it came down to choosing the lovely ladies whom would stand by me on my wedding day I decided on the magic number 10. With the ladies in mind I then had to decide how I would ask them.

After fighting off my excited urge to call them up and blurt out, "HEY! WANNA BE MY BRIDESLADY?!", I decided to undertake a craft project. Like Miss Lox...I am not naturally crafty, and this was quite a commitment.

I thought these were ADORABLE, but way too venturesome for inexperienced me, so they got axed:

Image via OnceWed/Design by Rifle Design

I am definitely creative but I lack endurance and patience, both of which I've come to realize are seriously deadly shortcomings in the DIY world. Undeterred by my track record, however, I cautiously made my way to the craft store. I decided my first project should be a relatively simple one and I mentally decided on a one-page, layered card design. Considering it had been years since I DIYed anything, my crafting purchase for the 10 cards was quite large.

My supplies:
1 Absolutely useless paper cutter
1 Pair of life-saving scissors
3 Pairs of decorative scissors (the kind I overused in 4th grade)
1 Hole puncher
1 Glue stick (the kind weird kids ate in kindergarten)
1 Pckg of glue dots
2 Rolls of (slightly tacky) frilly black and white ribbon
1 Roll of red satin ribbon
1 Pckg of black and white scrapbooking paper
1 Box of (unfortunately yellowish) envelopes
1 Black permanent marker
5 Sheets of alphabet stickers

Okay, so with my supplies in-hand and my determination at an all-time high, I decided to attack! First, I started with more familiar territory and I wrote/acquired poems. Poems I can do.

I started with my two Maids-of-Honor and their poems came out adorable and packed with lots of inside jokes and emotion. The next eight bridesmaids' rhymes, which I attribute to a surprising determination to finish the project coupled with rapidly waring patience, were completed with slightly less fervor.

MOH Meghan's poem (we were college roommates and I've known her since middle school):

    My Dearest Dudie, we’ve been through it all
    The ups the downs, the climbs the falls
    You’ve held back my hair, on nights gone all wrong
    And lalalalala’d to our favorite song.

    Many of memories, together we’ve shared
    And I’m pretty impressed by how well we’ve fared
    Too much vodka, or too much champagne
    Too many mornings in the bathroom with pain

    But we always pull through it, we always endure
    Endless nights writing papers when coffee’s no cure
    We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, shook our heads and we’ve sighed
    (Tell any of my secrets and I’ll swear that you’ve lied!)

    Now the time is upon us, we’re settling down
    I’ve met the man, and I will wear the gown
    But I need someone special standing there by my side
    On the magical day that will make me a bride

    What I am requesting, perhaps you might guess
    On my very special day, you will wear a special dress...

    Will you be my Maid of Honor?

In future posts I will be happy to give better step-by-step accounts of my DIY projects (should there be any), but this one was done over a year ago and probably could have been completed much more efficiently. So, for now, I will give you a more summarized version of my endeavor.

At the time...I wanted a black, white and red themed wedding, so this served as the color inspiration for the cards. I started off by trying to cut all the black cardstock-like paper to size. As it turned out, the cheap paper cutter I purchased was way too small and way too dull to cut my paper. This was when I decided to cut all the paper with scissors, by eye—I am such a rookie.

I printed out the poems and cut the borders with the decorative scissors and pasted them to the black cards. I hole-punched the top of the cards, slipped ribbons through the holes and tied a bow. I finished them off the lazy way—by sticking letters spelling out their names to the top and...voilà!

I'm not sure why I printed the poems onto computer paper first instead of directly on the white paper I scalloped around the edges—this left a visible line where I glued the two papers together. Silly me, another rookie error!

The final step was to gussy up the envelopes. At this point I was pretty exhausted so I was quite pleased with how easy this was. All I did was wrap the red ribbon around the stuffed envelope and secured them in place with the glue dots. I then tied a bow, wrote the name of the bridesmaid on the front with the permanent marker and (three hours later) I was aaaalll done.

So that just about sums up how I survived my first wedding-related craft project unscathed (with the exception of a few dead brain cells and lost sleep). 

The ladies:

• Brandi - Maid-of-Honor, buddies since 2nd grade
• Meghan - Maid-of-Honor, friends since middle school, college roommate
• Andrea - friend, lovely cousin
• Carina - twin, friend since 8th grade
• Karina - crazy face, first friend at my previous job
• Kelli - first communion co-graduate, real friend since 6th grade
• Maria - friend, future sister-in-law
• Megan - my lovely friend since the 3rd grade
• Sarah - curly-haired buddy since 4th grade
• Tracy - friend, future sister-in-law, first reader/supporter of my blog

 7/10 of the Bridesmaids (+ me in the middle)

How did you ask your maids? Are you a natural DIYer? What was your first wedding-related craft project?

With love,

Miss Seal

(all personal photos unless stated otherwise)