Mingle Magazine feature - Boho styled wedding

I am so happy to finally post about a styled boho wedding shoot I did earlier this year with a talented team of local wedding vendors. The styled shoot is currently featured in the autumn 2016 Mingle Magazine.

Mingle is full of creative ideas for unique gatherings. I'm all over the fall and holiday party ideas - there's a ladies wrap night and flower arranging lunch, cookie swap party, holiday prep party, santa's workshop party and hot chocolate and ice skating party. Oh my, I wish I was at all of these gatherings! 

Our Boho wedding was featured on 7 pages (yeah!) but there are so many more photos and details that were not shown in the magazine that I'd like to share. So here you go ...

Our photographer, Kat Williams from Attakat did such an amazing job. We were at The Warehouse Event Venue in Downsview Park. The white walls and polished concrete floor at the venue were like a blank canvas just waiting for us to make it our own. Toni from Confetti and Bows rents her huge 8' by 8' wall of handmade paper flowers and we used it to create the most amazing photo booth area.

Doris from Love Lettering created the mirror/sign for the photo booth. Doris found the mirror in the trash and rescued it from a landfill. Doris is also the creative genius and maker behind PosecardsTM  - our awesome photo props.

All of the wedding cakes and sweets were created by Caitlin from Cakelaine. Doris did the custom hand lettering on the chalkboard.  And if you are looking for guidance on how to easily add hand lettering onto chalkboards you can find my DIY tutorial here. 

The paper lanterns, balloons, chalkboards, cake stands and cake topper were all from Creative Bag. I added the gold details to the "best day ever" cake topper and you can find my DIY tutorial here.

These adorable Sugargirlee latex balloons from Creative Bag and are not only cute they are made in Canada and earth-friendly. The balloons will decompose as fast as an oak leaf in your backyard. I added white and gold tassels to one of the large hellium filled balloons.

The paper goods were all created by Alicia from Alicia's Infinity. Alicia's beautiful watercolour illustrations were the inspiration behind all of the wedding details.

The Perfect Table supplied all of our vintage and specialty tabletop and accent pieces. You can find the lace table runners here.

Alicia also designs and creates custom wedding jewellery. I love this necklace that she created featuring one of her watercolour illustrations that match the wedding stationery. The necklace was packaged in a kraft jewellery box that was hand lettered by Doris for a Bridesmaid proposal gift.

Our gift table set up featured a clear wishing well that Doris embellished with her beautiful hand lettering and illustrations.

I created this vignette beside the wishing well with a something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue theme. A vintage bride and groom where placed inside a new glass apothecary container. And a borrowed family wedding photo were embellished with a blue ribbon and displayed in this new vintage inspired card holder.

All of our beautiful floral arrangements were created by Jessica from Periwinkle Flowers. I added gold paint to white hobnail milk glass vases from Creative Bag. 

I also have to thank my daughter Haley for being our "hand model" for the shoot and agreeing to wear whatever I put on her for the photo styling. This is the only picture that you can see more than her hands. 

I keep seeing the Autumn Mingle magazine in Michael's, Indigo and Whole Foods and I have to admit it makes me smile every time I see it!

diy party decor favourites and a couple of ideas for how to display them

Do you like to host parties? I do. I love party decorations and diy party decor projects. I have a few favourite diy party projects that I tend to make over and over because they are not only easy to make but they are also inexpensive.

 I am always trying to come up with new ways to display my party decorations so that I am not marking my walls or furniture and I'm going to share a couple of my ideas with you today. So let's get this party started ...

My number one go to diy party decoration - tissue paper pompoms. Tissue paper comes in so many colour options and best of all it is inexpensive. There are so many ways to make tissue paper pompoms. They can be hung from the ceiling or mounted flat to the wall, change up the size, use different colours of tissue to create an ombre effect or cut the ends like I did to create tissue paper flowers. 

When you combine tissue paper flowers with other large paper decorations you can create an amazing party backdrop. This is how I created my tissue paper flower pompoms:

1. You will need 6 sheets of tissue paper. The size of tissue is up to you so make these as large or small as you want. You will use two sheets each of three different colours to recreate my sample.

2. Accordion fold all of the tissue paper as shown above until you are left with one bundle of tissue about 1" wide.

3. Separate the three colours and cut each color as shown above - longest (outside) tissue has a pointed edge, middle tissue is shorter and has a rounded edge, and the shortest (inside) tissue has a fringe edge.

4. Open all of the tissue paper bundles and layer them together as shown.

5/6. Refold the tissue paper layers and add a twist tie to the centre as shown.

7. Open the tissue paper to create your flower one side at a time. 

8. The back of this pompom is flat for hanging on the wall.

 

A  neutral backdrop of kraft, white and gold paper party decorations gets a pop of colour with these pink tissue paper flower pompoms. I could easily remove the tissue paper flowers and replace them with pompoms in a different colour to reuse this backdrop for another party.

My secret for displaying this large grouping of paper party decorations was this large piece of pegboard. The paper decorations were tied to the board using baker's twine. I can set this display up days before the party and all I have to do is lean the pegboard against the wall when it's time to set up for the party. No nails or hooks required.

Tissue paper tassel garlands are my other go to diy party decoration. They are simple to create and you can make the garlands as long or short as you'd like. I also love that the garlands are extremely light so it makes displaying them a breeze. 

I came up with this way to display my tissue paper tassel garlands so that I don't have to worry about using tape on my walls or furniture. Here's what you will need: mason jars, wooden dowels, sand and clothespins.

I spray painted my mason jars gold and and added a band of gold glitter so that you would not see the sand inside of the jars.

I could have just used plain wood clothespins but I decorated mine with scraps of decorative paper and resin flowers.

I glued the clothespins to one end of the wood dowels as shown above. Put one wood dowel into each mason jars that has been filled with sand. 

Clip the tissue paper tassel garlands to the wood dowels as shown above and space the jars so that the garland hangs nicely. Depending on the length of the dowels, you can add this display to a table top or where ever you want!

Tissue paper tassel garlands are easy to create. These ones were created using Martha Stewart's ombre tissue paper but you can do this same technique with solid or printed tissue paper as well.

You can cut your tassels by hand or you can use the Martha Stewart tassel cutter like I did to get even cut tassels. You can check out this Martha Stewart YouTube video to see this amazing tool in action.

Here's a really quick look at how to make a tassel: (left to right) cut the edges of your tissue as shown, roll the tissue and then twist at the middle. Fold the tassel in half and then twist once more to create a loop for hanging.

I wanted to add a little glitter to my tassels so I used gold glitter tape just below the loop. The glitter tape does not stick to itself very well so you will have to use a little adhesive on the end of the glitter tape. 

You can cover the entire pegboard with decorations if you want. Just remember to leave one edge of the pegboard flat so it will sit on a flat surface.

welcome 2016 with these diy confetti poppers

Are you planning a New Years Eve party? Here's a quick project that you can make in no time using push pop containers, confetti and labels that you can print at home using the free download that I created in this blog post. 

Here's what you'll need to create the confetti poppers:

push pop containers, my sticker download, full page sticker sheets, glitter tape and confetti. You will also need a printer and scissors. 

Go Green! You can make your own confetti using scraps of tissue paper, mylar, sizzle and paper!

Let's make it! 

1. Assemble your push pop containers. 

2. Fill the containers with confetti and add the lids.
3. Download the art for the labels.

4. Print the labels, cut them out and adhere them to the push pop containers using my photos as a guide.

5. Add a little sparkle with some glitter tape and you are done!

Hand these out to your guests just before midnight, grab your camera and get ready to take some amazing pictures. 

FYI : Have your guests remove the push pop lids before pushing the confetti out of the containers.

Set up a photo backdrop to take pictures of family and friends

Last year my husband's Grandmother asked me to take some photos of her with all of her grand and great grand children when we were together for the holidays. She knows that I always have my camera on hand and love to take photos.

We celebrated Grandma's 99th birthday this weekend and I decided to surprise her by setting up a photo backdrop in my kitchen so I could photograph her with everyone at the party.

I knew that the natural light in the kitchen would be the best spot to photograph at the time of day that I would be shooting. I made an assortment of paper and tissue paper elements to hang as a backdrop and hung some paper lanterns. I was going to cover up my vintage sign with a canvas drop sheet but I liked the look of it with the paper decorations and it became part of the set up. 

I used a chair and a small table with Grandma's birthday cake as props. I tested the set up with my daughter before the birthday guests arrived to make sure that back drop was going to work for both sitting and standing.

Grandma loved the photo backdrop and was so happy to have her photo taken with everyone. We had a lot of fun taking the photos and you can tell from all of the smiles when you look at the pictures.

A little later in the day, I surprised Grandma again by presenting her with a gallery frame filled with photos that I had just shot and printed at home. She left the party with not just memories of the day but something that she could hang in her home right away. 

This diy concept is a fun idea for more than just birthday parties! I would do this for a baby or bridal shower, wedding or anniversary party and of course, during the holidays.

The best part for me was being able to print the photos right away so I could frame them and present them as our gift. I really like that my Canon Pixma Pro-100 photo printer can print photos up to 13" x 19" because I can purchase almost any frame that I want and I know that I won't have to worry about the photo size.

Here's a few more of the photos that I shot at the party ...

I posted this collage photo on Instagram after the party was over ... 

and here's a close up of the birthday cake that I decorated and used as a "prop" in some of the photos.

I hope that you have the opportunity to take lots of photos in the next few days with your family and friends.

Smile!