Save the Date!

It's official!

We're getting hitched!

We booked the church, the hall, the decorator and the groom. All we need are some dancing shoes and a bucket of champagne!

L & S: 2014

Awesome Easy Glass Painting

Saturday was a day for crafting. Try this transformation - it's a great way to add life to vases you have lying around the house.

It's been made aware to me that S, fiancé extraordinaire, is a pretty awesome guy. So awesome, in fact, that he goes along with most of my crazy schemes, ideas and plans. When I call him and say, "S, we simply have to go out into the woods to collect car fulls of tall sticks for decorating my parents anniversary party!" He just shrugs and asks when and where (and then brings garbage bags so I don't litter his car with leaves and bugs and things).

So a few weeks ago, when I had a brainstorm for funky wedding decorating ideas, he was fairly cool about it. ("S, lets find dozens and dozens of clear glass vases to paint as centerpieces for the wedding!) He was so cool, in fact, that he helped me search yardsales and thrift stores Saturday morning for clear glass vases, and then took me to my favourite arts and crafts store to purchase more glass paint.

Clear Glass Vases

Four of the vases I picked up at a thrift store, for seventy-five cents apiece (score!) This gorgeous, intricate decanter was from a yard sale for a dollar - in retrospect, they may have not sold it to me had they known I was going to fill it with purple paint.

Gorgeous Decanter

I used PermEnamel for painting. It retails for $5.99 at the arts and crafts store I work at, but went to $1.29 on clearance - and then 50% off all clearance items as a summer sale. For 65 cents a bottle, I purchased many in anticipation of painting a lot of vases for this wedding. 

PermEnamel Glass Paint

This glass paint is perfect for painting more delicate vases. While other paints require you to bake the item in the oven, this paint dries within hours and cures within a week. It's not as durable as other glass paint, but it is waterproof. I chose several different colours of purple (the amethyst colour is gorgeous), as well as red (raspberry sherbet!) blue and silver to mix up into different purples. 

Painting the vase

A very long paint brush worked wonders for painting the inside of the glass. Painting the inside makes for a fabulously professional appearance, but was really difficult for narrow necked vases. Instead, pour paint into the vase and rotate and swish the paint around until the entire inside is covered. The paint cleans up quickly from my hands and the brush with just water. I can't vouch for whether it is washable from clothing - although my shorts are splotched with purple paint, I haven't even tried to wash them yet. 

Painted Glass Vases

In retrospect, my biggest mistake was doing them in the hot sunlight of the backyard. The paint dried too quickly and wound up being streaky on a few vases. They still look great from the outside, but the insides are mottled. The next batch will be better. 

S hasn't seen these yet - I'm hoping he loves them as much as I do. We're hoping to mix and match different shaped vases with different colours of purple paint as the table centerpieces at the wedding - and then fill them with assorted grasses or fronds or sticks...It's an inexpensive alternative to flowers, and we certainly have the time and energy to make them ourselves!

Dollars and Cents (and Sense)

When assessing how much a celebration like this was going to cost, S and I made lists. Well, I made lists - S just shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Some immediate things we needed to consider were:

1. How many people? While S has a relatively small family, and would have been more than happy to elope, I have a lovely large (loud) family and wanted them all there to celebrate our day with us.

2. The ceremony location: the cathedral we ultimately decided on is booked about a year in advance. We had strongly considered an outdoor location, but the thought of getting rained out was seriously off-putting. The hassle of booking a tent and chairs for the possibility of rain (plus some kind of ground cover so our guests aren't standing in a pool of mud) wound up being too expensive for our budget.

3. The reception hall: we visited many halls. Our first choice was a hotel ballroom. It was a great location, had a lot of amenities, but also a lot of additional fees. Corkage fees, cake cutting fees, hall rental fees, catering fees (want coffee with that? It'll be an additional 2$/person) plus gratuities. Oh you wanted your cake cut too? That'll be an additional $2.95/person. Don't even get me started on the open bar!

Our second choice was the Italian club my parents have been part of for years. It was a smaller hall, didn't have any anterooms, but was so much easier to deal with. Catering for this many people? Then there is no hall rental fee! Cake cutting fee? What the hell is that? Dealing with a smaller hall made for a much more personal experience.


Opinion of Probable Cost: Wedding Style


At work I often have to assemble an Opinion of Probable Cost (OPC) for different building projects - adding up different materials and labour costs, plus a contingency and taxes, to figure out what a project might add up to.

Wedding Cost Estimate

I adjusted the costs to reflect typical costs in my area, while still allowing for some contingency money. It adds up fast! As we begin to pay for things, I'll update the 'Actual Cost' column to track our spending. Poor S just about had a heart attack when I showed him! I'm really glad we have two years to figure this out...