I'm Selling Card Boxes!

Giving card boxes to my girl's for their weddings coming up in October is an awesome wedding gift I think. They are customized to their colors and themes and I made with love from my heart that grows stronger each day that I know them. I enjoy making them and can't wait to make more! So...I'm making more and selling them!!!

I am currently using the two I've already made as examples of what I can do and I'll be starting a portfolio so my bride's can flip through the book and see the detail and intricacy that goes into each one. They have been costing me anywhere between $50 to $70 so I'm selling them for $80. I have ordered boxes off a whole sale site and saved some money on the main part of the project. I'm searching Michael's, Hobby Lobby and Joann's for bargain ribbon and I'm stocking up on scrapbooking materials because they are amazing for this hobby I've taken up just recently.

I have posted the two I've made on Etsy to show people what I can do and hopefully I'll get a nibble. I have a lady on Weddingbee that messaged me to see if I could make her one. I hope she messages back and says yes after I told her the price of it...We shall see though. I'm confident I can market these and start a fun hobby on the side.

Not only is it a hobby, it'll help me make more for my business too and save money for my bride's. $80 is a great deal for these! I was looking on Etsy and on google and a single box with a ribbon on it and a silkflower is going for $45-$50. I am doing three boxes and glueing each strand of ribbon to the boxes. Tell me I'm not doing someone a favor out there for selling them for $80!

Well, let me know if you have any ideas on how to market this further or if you have a friend or relative that needs a card box.

Sandals and More!

As I am becoming more and more knowledgeable about DIY things and actually putting effort into trying them out, I'm having a blast! I am making a portfolio so I can show my brides what else I can do for them other than plan their wedding!

I want to be able to make DIY things for the bride and groom or other clients to help them save money. I'll make the products for a discounted price and figure them into the package, in turn getting extra money for the business while reducing my client's bill in the end.

I have continued to add to my centerpieces I can offer to rent for $1 a piece. I am pretty sure I'll be tacking on a security deposit on my rentable centerpieces, but it won't be a deal breaker. Take a look at my newest thing I just created today.

My girlfriend is getting married in October and she is not a big fan of heels. So after the ceremony and the pictures, she can rock my blinged out sandals if she wants. They were fun and easy to make! I just used a little bit of ribbon, which I wrapped around the rubber part of the sandals and then spruced them up with some rhinestones!

If you know anyone who is interested in getting their sandals or heels blinged out, getting a customized card box,  or renting centerpieces, let me know. I have a wide variety of centerpieces and I can make any kind of card box as long as I know their colors and the theme of their wedding. I don't have to be contracted with them to run their wedding or plan it. I'd be more than happy to make card boxes or bling sandals out all day long! 

DIY Crazy!

I was scrapbooking with Karen and Kristin on Easter weekend and went to Michael's to get some more supplies. I was walking through the store and came across the smaller hat box that has the damask ribbon pattern on it and remembered I told Candice I'd make her a card box for her wedding coming up this October! I grabbed the hat box and immediately went down the ribbon aisle. Inspiration hit me and I couldn't wait to get back to Karen's to scrapbook and then see what I could do with the hat box.

I got done with my pages I was creating for the scrapbook and I started to work my DIY skills! I got the first layer of the cake looking card box done and then added their last name to it with scrapbooking letters I had bought for my scrapbook. I couldn't wait to finish it!

I went to Michael's after the first day back to work after Easter and couldn't wait to find the two larger hat boxes. I found em alright, they were super expensive! I decided I'd go to Joann Fabrics. Behold! The exact hat boxes and more than half the price! I was stoked! I now know where to go for hat boxes! Why am I going back for more? Because I want to make more and sell them!  I loved making this card box and I am making one Kayti for her wedding next year. I want to make some and put them on the weddingbee website and it's so much fun to do!

As for the other piece in the photo, I have no idea what Candice will use it for at her wedding if she even will use it at all, but it was fun to make. It could be used as filler on the guestbook table or welcome table. I have had a lot of inspirations lately and have been all over the weddingbee website to view their DIY gallery. Let's just say I am super excited to make more things!

If you know anyone who wants a cardbox, I'll make one! I'll ship it anywhere. I want to start making them and posting them on my blog too. They are easy to make and fun to design! I think the ribbon was the most expensive part on the box. The whole box cost me $50 and it's an amazing wedding gift, well besides me at the wedding lol, jk Candy. Love you!  I can't wait to show it to you in person! And I'm blinging out some sandals for her too! So much ahead of me! Let me know what you think guys!

Lucy and Alex's Amazing Wedding 4/29/11

Bagpipes flooded the room, blue suede high heel shoes graced the bride in her tea length dress, converse shoes were worn by the groom and some rockin' black and white animal print heels were displayed by the bridesmaids during this amazing celebration of two lovers who tied the knot after 9 years!

I was absolutely honored when Lucy approached me and asked me to run hers and Alex's wedding. I couldn't have been happier to be able to not only witness the union of these two awesome individuals, but to make sure their day went absolutely perfectly and flawlessly.

This couple is not just your normal everyday couple, they are the most individual, artistic, insightful individuals who found each other in high school nine years ago and fell so deeply in love that they together, make the most amazingly eccentric couple to not only hang around with but to be influenced by. Everything about them makes my mind work and twist in ways I never thought possible. They are so down to earth and laid back, but they grab people's interest by being them and they just pull you into their world, which is the most beautiful world to be a part of. I was very excited to see how their wedding would be decorated, conducted and ran. It turned out I got to be the one to run it and help decorate it. Therefore, I got to be a witness of how they decided to conducted the most amazing day of their life.

They used lanterns to light up the vintage style, stone, mountain venue, called Boettcher Mansion. It didn't need much decoration because the building itself was the most beautiful mountain escape. We accented the cake table with river rocks to help bring out the building's walls. Lanterns were the centerpieces with river rocks on the bottom and they were surrounded by rose petals and three tea light votives. When you stepped back to take a full view of the room, it was simply breathtaking.

Lucy spent a lot of time on the signs that decked the mountain escape. Alex, a tatoo artist, drew up a bird that summed them up so perfectly and that was the object of focus on the signs used for the wedding and the invitations they sent out. They were printed on thick card stock paper and aged by a unique technique Lucy read about. The room, the entrance and the guestbook table looked phenomenal!

The cake was brought all the way from Wyoming, made by a family member for them. It was absolutely devine! I have had a lot of wedding cake in my life, but never have I tasted a carrot cake like this one! There were other flavors but I got a carrot cake. AMAZING!

Desmond, their close friend, married them and played the bagpipes for their grand entrance. He brought the gift of music to their wedding and wowed us all. It rang throughout the cottage and just gave you goosebumps because it was so perfectly fitted for the room and for this occassion. The acoustics definitely fancied the bagpipe's sounds.

At the end of the night, the shuttle arrived to take them down the mountain to their hotel. Alex told me that he would recommend me to anyone because I amazed him on how on it I was all night. I saw them off and continued clean up and loading the remaining alcohol, decorations and other miscellaneous items into my vehicle. The lady who was overseeing the event said that the wedding was perfectly executed and went so smoothly that she was more than impressed. As a wedding coordinator and day of coordinator, it melted my heart to know my friends and the overseer of the venue was impressed with my services. I can't wait to see all of the photos Megan Huf took and definitely recommend her and her company to anyone who wants a friendly, well trained, photographer or photographers.

I want to end this entry with a huge congratulations to Lucy and Alex and wish them a forever of happiness!!

Phew! It Has Been A While

I have been slacking on my blog what with an amazing trip to New York and Lucy and Alex's wedding that happened on April 29th! (Which went amazingly by the way)! I need to get back on track here and keep blogging!

I had an amazing experience in New York with my boyfriend and his two college buddies. We did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE! We walked more than 6 miles one day! Let's just say that at the end of the night, I bought new shoes! I couldn't walk another inch in my boots. We explored the city for four days and only had one plan-a cruise on NY Harbor that we all purchased from a groupon special. We were sooooooo excited about it and when we finally arrived at the harbor after walking more than 100 blocks since there wasn't a metro stop close to the harbor and we needed to spend the day on that side of town, we got even more excited! It was going to be a blast! Dinner, drinks and dancing on New York Harbor at night! What an adventure!

We were told to come back to the dock at 7 exactly when we arrived at the check in spot at 6:00pm. So we watched the boats go by and watched a sea plane take a spot on the water. We walked back to the check-in and waited in line with the other excited people. As a wedding planner, I saw soooooo much potential for this company! They have great reviews already and I was planning on helping them out with my blogging about it and great pics of a great time. Instead, I'm writing a blog of warning to NEVER BOOK A CRUISE WITH MARCO POLO CRUISES.

Once we finally got on the ship, the ticket said the cruise would run from 7-10pm. We didn't take off until 7:45! When we boarded though, the music was a bit loud. I figured they were doing that to get us excited and pumped up. We all went to the second floor because there were no more first floor tables available. The only other tables at the point available on the second floor were right next to the DJ and his massive speakers. Not a great location but I figured the bumping music would be lowered as soon as we all boarded. It wasn't lowered...here began the problem. The lady sitting at the table in front of us, 3 tables away from the speaker and the DJ, pulled out kleenex and created earplugs for herself. I was starting to get a headache, so I went downstairs to ask the people who helped board the ship and direct people if the music would be lowered once we took off. The deckhand said, "Absolutely, there's just no one to turn it down right now, I'll run up in a second." This calmed my nerve a bit but made no sense to me. There was a DJ who was controlling the volume...so I went back upstairs and waited for the deckhand to do what he said he'd do in a second-turn the volume down on the ship. Nothing. I finally approached the DJ who was clearly in his own little world and I asked him in a screaming tone because that was what I had to use in order to be audible, if the music would be turned down. He said, "Eventually." I asked if it would be soon because I was getting a headached and I didn't bring any tylenol. He just shrugged his shoulders and twisted his lips up to give me a facial expression of, "too bad so sad," and he went back to mixing his music and dismissed me.

At this point, as an event planner, I got angry. The DJ is supposed to be respectable. The captain of the boat came up a few minutes later and told him to turn it down. He turned it down a bit so I didn't have to scream to be heard by my boyfriend who was sitting next to me. So I told my boyfriend what the DJ said to me. He got angry that he would do that. We decided to get our drinks and calm down a bit. We get to the bar and the bartender was the utmost rudest person I'd experienced working for tips. I asked for a vodka cranberry and she promptly said, "The tickets are only good for beer, wine or soda. I don't even have cranberry juice anyway." So I ordered wine. They gave it to me in a plastic cup practically the size of a dixie cup! We decided dinner was next on the agenda and it'd be quieter downstairs where the buffet was being served. Let me tell you about stingy servers! It's a buffet! They served us the smallest portions possible! When you asked for a little more, they looked at you like, "really?" My boyfriend asked for two stuffed pasta shells and the lady refused. We got back upstairs hoping the music was lowered for dinner time. Not a chance. In fact, after the captain asked him to turn the music down, he creeped it back up a bit louder while we were getting dinner.

Vegetables were freezing on my plate! Either the burners weren't going underneath the food or we just go the shaft. Halfway through dinner, my boyfriend could tell I was upset and he went to talk to another employee. He asked an employee for the manager and he said he could help him. He told our story and the employee said that the second deck is loud because it's the dancing floor and that if I had a headache, I shouldn't have sat next to the speaker. My boyfriend quickly snapped and said, "She didn't have the headache before she got on the boat." He changed his tune a bit but still wasn't offering any solutions. He came back just as angry as I did after talking to the DJ and we decided to leave our cold food and head up to the top deck where we could enjoy the scenery.

I approached the lady at the other table who created ear plugs out of kleenex and asked her what she said to the DJ a bit earlier. She said she just asked if he'd be playing salsa and nothing much other than that. I told her how upset I was and how much of a headache I had. She ended up giving me a handful of Tylenol 500mgs and she said she had already taken some.

On the top deck, I approached a deckhand. I asked where the manager was and he said, "Why? A complaint?" I said "Yes, in fact I DO have a complaint." He told me he was the head of security and could try and help. I told him that if he was the head of security that he should know that one of his passengers is considering jumping off the boat to get off this wretched boat! He said, "As the head of security, I really hope you decide not to do so." We chuckled and I told him that I was seriously upset with the DJ and the music. When guests are approaching you to tell you to turn the music down, you should respond accordingly to their request and that during dinner, the point of music is to be a background noise. He told me that the second floor was the dancing hall but he'd let his manager know of my complaint. Again, no resolution offered! AND I STILL DON'T KNOW WHO THE MANAGER IS!

We stayed at the top of the boat the entire rest of the cruise! The ship sailed the same location a couple times and didn't dock until 10:30. I couldn't wait to dock and it was a half hour later than it was supposed to be! What if someone had a babysitter? What if I had other things planned that night and we didn't dock on time because he wanted to give us the full 3 hours but just do circles in the harbor?! The crazy thing was it could have been a bit more on time if in fact we would have taken off at 7:15 when the boat was completely loaded and no one else was in line on the dock, but NO, we had to wait to leave until 7:45!  It was obsurd!! It ruined our whole entire night.

I had to write this to get it off my chest. So spread the word, MARCO POLO CRUISES in NEW YORK-NOT SO GOOD AT ALL!