Details, Details -- the Goodwill Makeover

For the most part, I'd say we're pretty much done with all our wedding tasks except the flowers, delivering things to venues and a few minor details.

Over the last few months, I've been picking up random silver platters and picture frames at Goodwill with no real idea of how to use them. We're doing a modern-vintage wedding, so I figured I could use these pieces somewhere.

I finally found a place for them in our wedding. Behold...

I painted the silver trays and old picture frames yellow and grey, then put scrap fabric and paper on top of them. We're going to use them on our breakfast bar.

I'm using one of the small spare trays for the "guestbook" station. I covered an old drinking glass with some scrap fabric from the ring bearers tie and added an extra pom to finish the look.

Lastly, I had Mr. Joey spray paint a few bigger frames which I used as the seating chart. Again, I covered the back with scrap fabric and the the yellow paper is actually file folders I found in the recycling bin at work. The were the perfect color and they were free, so I thought why not.

I think all together, I spent about $8-10 on the trays, $1 on the large seating chart frame and$3 on the fancy Japanese black and white paper. I had the spray paint, fabric and tissue paper leftover from other projects. The other frames I got from friends. They were going to throw them out, so I rescued them.

Did you give any throw aways new life and use them in your wedding?

Centerpieces - part 2

My former attempt at the centerpieces were a bust (pengy, can you link part 1 please?). I searched online for inspirations but most of what I found wasn't doable on our budget. And then I looked down, literally, and found a little inspiration in my own home

I put this little number together over the weekend when my Mom told me to take some roses home from her garden. It was cute, simple and easy to replicate. I could use dahlias or yellow roses in place of the red/pink ones and I could use the the Billy Balls in place of the little pink puff flowers. I'd swap out the frame for the table number and forgo the succulent in this particular centerpiece.

I also tried it with the succulent.

I had a meeting at the Lake Union Cafe and brought along a few vases and a table runner to play with.

I really like the 3 vases in a row and the colors. I also like the picture above (it needs flowers). My next step is the figure out how many of each vase I have and try to stretch them over 10 booths and 6 long tables. I also have 5 big round tables I don't know what to do with. You should expect a few more entries about the centerpieces!

Anyone else find wedding decor inspiration staring them right in the face?

When Mr. Joey's Away (part 7)...

...Ms. Joey will go crazy with the spray paint.

I bought some vases at West Elm late last year for our centerpieces. At the time, I didn't really know what shade of yellow we'd be using. I thought the light-ish yellow would be fine. Fast forward 6 months -- I hate the yellow. I don't hate it, I just don't like it for our wedding. I tried to sell them on Craigslist but what would anyone want with 20 dusty yellow vases?

this is the yellow

I needed to salvage these vases but how? I was at my parents helping them move some stuff out of the garage when I spotted a can of gray spray paint. My Dad told me to take it so I went home and wondered what I'd do with it. You can see where I'm going with this.

My attempts weren't too bad. Spray painting glass vases were hard because of the shape and the fact that the paint has nothing to cling to. In retrospect, I should have tried a primer but, oh well.




Since the grey was a success, I headed over to Home Depot and picked up a can of yellow and another can of grey.



I also picked up a succulent which ended up in the weird champagne glasses I picked up at Goodwill a few days before. A little spray paint and a succulent, and the glasses looked OK.



Anyone else have a few items that needed salvaging?

When Mr. Joey is Away (part 6)...

...Ms. Joey will go shopping at Goodwill.

After my failed attempt at centerpieces a a few months ago, I decided to put away the vases and the fabric, and let them be for awhile. I figured looking at them fresh in a few months might help. This week I felt it was time to bust out the basket of vases and try again.

The problem this time was A) the yellow vases weren't the right yellow (see my next post) and B) I didn't have enough height. So I marched (well, drove) myself down to Goodwill to check out my options. If you are in need of cheap vases, can I suggest Goodwill? Mine has rows and rows of them and most sell for $0.69. I don't mind paying full price from pieces I know I'll use again like the flower girl basket or the fabric for the table runners (and our future quilt), but I knew tall vases would end up right back at Goodwill.

I scored 3 tall vases for under $3.00 plus a few holiday reads for the same price. I also picked up 6 short champagne glasses to toy with. So for $10 I got 3 vases, 6 glasses and 5 books. Not too shabby.

If you are looking for mason jars, Goodwill has tons of them. Just FYI.

Anyone else go scouring at thrift stores for wedding decor?

While Mr. Joey's Away (part 4)...

...Ms. Joey will solve the table number problem.

We thought we figured out the whole table number thing a few weeks ago. Remember? I blogged about it.

We were really excited until reality set in. We have almost 26 tables that seat anywhere between 4-10 people. That's a lot of wine bottles to have on tables and at the bar.

We have a few families of 4 we'd like to put in booths who wouldn't drink a bottle of wine. We also have groups of 4 who would go through a bottle in no time flat. Plus, do we put red out or white? Too many questions and too many things to figure out.

So I hunted around again, and of course, Martha provided the perfect solution.

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I have a few changes that will liven up the table number and make it our own. How are you displaying your table numbers?

If I had it to do over again - part 1

The Joey wedding is still 4.5 months away but already I'm thinking about what I would have done differently. Don't get me wrong, I still love what we've done and are going to do, but it hasn't stopped me from coming up with "what if" alternatives.

My first new idea? A school themed wedding at McMenamins Kennedy School in Portland. Mr. Joey and I had lunch there when we were in Portland a month ago. As soon as we walked in, we both thought it would be the perfect location for a wedding.

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The hotel-school is located in a neighborhood outside of downtown Portland, but not too far from it. It's got everything you could need on site like various bars, restaurants, brewery, movie theater, soaking pool, guest rooms, a gym for the reception and courtyard for the ceremony. I love how well they preserved the school.

two images above

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It's perfect since Mr. Joey is a teacher who comes from a family of teachers. They have concerts on site and I was even thinking that his band the Tailenders could play the night before.

Think of all the school inspired favors and decor you could incorporate into the site! Stacked books as centerpieces with flowers in vases. Or as a favor what about hitting up your goodwill for cheap used paperback if your favorite titles. My Goodwill sells paperbacks for about $0.69.

Or what about this idea for STDs from Martha Stewart? Wouldn't that be so cute!

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Ah...the fun I could have with this theme. Have you come up with different versions of your wedding that you'll never use?

Decorating block

Mr. Joey just sent me a few shots of the chapel we're getting married at. I've only been once and I had asked him to take some pictures in between classes.

The chapel is really simple and has A LOT of light during the day. It's also really plain (which can be good) and has a lot of chairs that aren't exactly the cutest things. Why couldn't they have grey seat cushions?

Besides a flower arrangement on the alter (which we'd reuse at the reception), I don't know what to do to decorate. I thought of hanging a few of vases off the the first chair every other row. A little yellow ribbon a one of these vases from CB2?

The thing is that I didn't budget for decorating the chapel. The ceremony is only a blessing and the whole thing should only take about 30 minutes. So I don't want to spend too much money.

What do you think? Would you leave the space as is? If you'd decorate, how would you do it on a budget?