Making the Wedding Rings

You may remember way back when I posted about my plans to make our wedding bands (which is also one of my favorite posts I've ever written for this blog).

Well, it happened, with the help of my friend Emily (who is the reason I found our photographer, as I mentioned in another previous post). John had to leave for marching band camp that day and was unable to be there with us, so I made sure to take plenty of pictures. And now, I'm really glad I did, because I love being reminded of the process. And what a process it was; I almost didn't have a band for John at all because we couldn't figure out why the sterling was cracking apart. Then, on my ring, the solder didn't seem to want to take and we kept having to heat and reheat the ring under the torch (which was nerve-wracking because gold is softer and I was scared I would melt it and ruin it!).

All in all, it was a long day of work (over 6 hours), but I was so proud to be able to do this myself as a tribute to my grandmother, who made my parents' rings and whose tools and silver I used to make our rings. Emily was amazing, stepping in when I asked for help and really making sure I left with rings that I was completely in love with. 

Here's a small tour of the process:

All the raw materials laid out on a vintage jewelry box that I keep my
grandmother's silver tools in (files, jewelry saw, hammers, solder, etc).

The three large sterling pieces were for John's ring, the two small 14k
 white gold pieces for my ring(s), and the postage-stamp sized piece
of 18k white gold solder that I had to special-order for my rings.

The jewelry saw, all beeswaxed up and ready to go, and through
the blade, the measurements for our rings. Mine was about 2.2"
and John's only took 2.6"

Gotta love the singed bit all around the spot where I annealed John's ring.

Before I made any of the other rings, I made a practice ring with some
spare sterling silver. It ended up being a size 5, which fits right on
my pinky finger.

The practice ring without any sanding (hence the obvious seam).
I liked the matte look of it without any polishing.

After annealing, I stamped the three blanks for John's rings.

The first blank shattered like peanut brittle after annealing it. Emily was
stunned; she said she had never seen that happen before. The second
ring formed a small crack in a later step. After calling a few friends
 for advice (and trying to fill the cracks with solder, which was futile),
we let the third ring air-cool instead of quenching it.
It was the little ring that could.

So I practiced stamping on the broken ring. I knew I wanted to stamp it
with a quote from Walt Whitman's Song of the Open Road (which
we used in our ceremony), but I couldn't decide between three
quotes. The quote ended up choosing me, because a second ring
cracked after this point.

The ring that didn't break apart. Hooray!

Emily got a great shot of me soldering what would become John's ring.

You can see the seam so clearly in this shot. It was pretty much invisible
by the time I was done with it!

Holding up my engagement ring in the light right before I formed
the white gold to fit around it. It had such a nice sparkle I
decided to take a picture.

After bending my ring around my engagement ring, we had to keep
hammering it around the ring sizer to make sure it didn't completely
lose its shape.

You can see all the scratches and marks from the pliers and the hammer.
That's the fun part of working with gold; it's so soft it shows everything,
so I was advised to keep a fairly light touch with it.

It almost looks like a different metal when you hold it up against my
finished engagement ring, doesn't it? But don't worry; after
many many hours of filing and sanding and buffing,
it looked like a perfect match.

Of all the DIY projects for the wedding, this one was the most intimidating and the most satisfying. I can't believe I made our wedding bands with my nascent metal smithing skills. I am so proud of this accomplishment but also so glad I didn't give in and buy bands out of fear. What an incredible experience, and such a meaningful tribute to my family history.

Post-Wedding. Where the REAL blogging about the wedding begins.

I am now officially in the happily ever after. I am a Mrs. to his Mr. Other than the shiny new rings on our fingers, things are pretty much back to normal around here. We made our first meal as newlyweds (stir fry with a spicy korean sauce), ate some of the leftover wedding cake (which is some of the best cake I have ever had), and reminisced about the wedding over a glass of wine.

You all may have noticed a sharp drop in the number of posts in the days leading up to the wedding. It was such a flurry of activity that I simply couldn't catch my breath a moment, but pictures were taken along the way and hopefully I can fill you all in on the details and how it came together before the professional photos come back (which are going to be incredible. I can feel it in my bones).

Reflecting on this wedding will be a phase of its own, and I fully intend to share with you all the little projects, the memories, and the pictures as I go. It's my way of processing the work that went into the big day, all the little details that didn't really matter in the scheme of things, but made the day more beautiful and memorable.

For now, let me just say that the wedding was perfect, because it was full of the things that truly matter in life: seeing our loved ones, feeding them well, and celebrating our commitment to one another.

Photo by our dear friend (and talented photographer) Myles Nickolich.
Check out his blog here.

The Bouquets

The inspiration for my bouquet. Isn't it lovely? Originally spotted on Style Me Pretty,
with photography by Yasmin Khajavi.

I was struck by that bouquet. In all my searching and saving of images, I kept coming back to this bouquet. It's so classic and stunning. I've always loved cream colored roses, so combined with dahlias, white astilbe (the greenish-white lacy stuff coming out the bottom-I had never heard of astilbe before the florist told me what it was!), this was just the perfect bouquet.

The only flower I wanted to change: the yellow/peach roses. Our color scheme had a pale peach in it, but no yellow, so I wanted to keep my bouquet in the palette. So we went with pale peach roses and cream colored cabbage roses with a hint of blush at the centers.

The bridesmaid bouquets were much less elaborate. Since we had to transport all the flowers ourselves to Mohican, in coolers, it was vital that we bring loose stems instead of six completed arrangements, for space reasons. So I went with a simple but striking choice: purple alstroemeria with variegated pitt. The bridesmaids assembled their own bouquets the morning of the wedding while getting ready (and while I was off taking photos with John) and wrapped them in champagne floral lace. They turned out incredible and really popped against their jade and teal dresses.

When I picked up my bouquet the morning before the wedding, it was perfection. It was wrapped similarly to the inspiration bouquet, with ivory ribbon and little pearl-topped pins. Pretty, but too traditional for me. So I dug through my tiny collection of lace from my grandmother and found the most stunning rose lace to re-wrap my bouquet.

To top it all off, I wanted to wrap vintage gold heart lockets around the lace, with photos of my grandparents on their wedding days (since none of them could be with me on mine). It was a way that I could carry them with me down the aisle, in my heart (and literally, in a heart!). I scoured vintage stores and Etsy until I found two perfect lockets for the task: one with etched and tinted daisies and the other a tiny, delicate heart with a purple flower flanked by green leaves. They looked stunning when hung together on a delicate gold crinkle chain, and I've worn it as a necklace ever since the wedding.

It all came together so beautifully. If I could have changed one thing about the wedding, it would have been to include more flowers somehow. I loved working with a florist and the bouquets were just incredible in action.

The most gorgeous dress in the world?

Just about. Waaaaaay to expensive ($5280), but the colors are just stunning. Care to gawk with me?

Brilliant Ideas for Photos

Reasons I love this idea:
1) It looks amazing as a backdrop.
2) We have a ton of loose sheet music left over from making paper flowers.
3) John and I are musicians so this would be a fun way to tie that in. :)

Spotted on Hi-Fi Weddings, Photography by Amanda Doublin. What a brilliant idea!

Photo Love

A perfect image, spotted on Snippet and Ink. Photography by Molly Watson.

Such a fantastic shot.

Sweet Wedding Sign

Again, spotted on Green Wedding Shoes.

Beatles!

Photography by Clayton Austin.

Pretty jewelry photo

Just a little one-off shot in a Green Wedding Shoes post that I thought was so sweet:

Photos and Styling by Simply Bloom Photography

Love the necklace hanging sweetly from the branch of berries.

Wedding Shoes

I should have posted this ages ago, but I bought my wedding shoes, after much deliberation.

So, here's what happened: I bought a pair of ballroom dance shoes, which looked perfectly adorably perfect on the website. They arrived, I opened them, only to find that the color was totally wrong. What looked like flesh toned satin vs. gold leather trim really just looked like gold on gold. Which wasn't bad, but it was too flashy and the seams looked sort of ragged and cheap. Disappointing, because I was expecting this:

 Look so cute in the picture, right?
Still bummed these didn't work out.

They didn't seem like shoes I was going to keep, wear again, etc. So I returned them with a heavy heart, because I knew I'd have to start searching again. For those of you new to the blog, or new to me, I HATE SHOE SHOPPING. I only like vintage-looking shoes, and I often have a hard time finding what I like.

However, after a few weeks of searching (Endless, DSW, Plasticland, Modcloth...) I bought not one, but two pairs of shoes (shocking!).

The first, I wore for my engagement photos, found on Plasticland. I love them so much, I may buy them in black. They are the most friggin' comfortable pair of heels I have ever owned. I have worn these babies with jeans, because they are so darn comfortable.

There they are in action (and in black and white)! 
http://www.toomuchawesomeness.com/danaandjohn  
© 2011 Kenneth Clunk.

And, other than the engagement-photo shoes, I bought my wedding shoes:

Bowm-chicka-bow-wow.

I had a temporary moment of "Do these look vintage, or more like something Lady Gaga would wear?" Eventually, I decided to bite the bullet and buy them. I love the little gold leather tie, the teardrop cutouts, the peep-toe. I never in a million years expected to buy an ivory shoe, or anything in the white family. I was expecting to buy blue/teal shoes and rock the house that way, with my something blue taken care of. But these are fantastic, no?

I shipped them to my parents' house, and so I got to open them in front of my mom, whose immediate response was "Aren't those heels a little high?" in a tone that really deflated my initial excitement. But, my mom can't help but worry about everything. Her mind immediately goes to places like "Is that pathway at Mohican level? What if she trips in her dress while she walks down the aisle? Is the peep toe going to pinch her toes at a weird angle? Will she get blisters and not be able to have her first dance?" (I fielded some of these questions; that's how I know she thinks this way. Must be exhausting!).

None of which should matter to her, since I am the one who has to actually wear the shoes, and weigh these supposed risks myself. I've already practiced walking in them, and they are fine because they are made well (yes, it's a surprising 4" heel, but I am actually at a height where John doesn't have to stoop too much to kiss me at the altar. Also, my wedding dress doesn't need to be taken up as much now, which makes me happy since I wanted to do as little to the train of the dress as possible).

And I friggin' love them. This isn't to say I don't adore my mom. She's been awesome throughout the wedding planning process. Her main complaint has been that I haven't given her enough to do, which I count as a sign that I am doing a great job of keeping things simple and focused on the whole getting married part of the wedding.

Hopefully I'll take some halfway decent photos of all the DIY projects in the works and get those posted. At the very least, you'll see some photos after the wedding is over, since our photographer rocks my socks off. Less than 2 weeks now! Wish me luck in the final days of harried crafting and planning and running about (and hemorrhaging money. Don't forget the hemorrhaging of money that will happen from now until the wedding day).

Cheers!

Whaaaaaat. Photo Love.

Love love love these photos on Snippet and Ink. Photography is obviously by Feather Love (if you read as many wedding blogs as I do, you can pretty much learn to spot Feather Love's distinctive, vintagey style).

Love this duo. We're doing the whole framed-photos-of-
loved-ones thing too! It's a major part of the decor!

LOVE.

I love these photos so much I want to be this bride. Literally. Her style is perfection (that veil with that dress with that jacket), the black and white perfection that captured their best moments (walking out of the church, the cake cutting).

I want to duplicate these. Consciously. As in, their poses and their perfect little moments committed to film. That's how much I love the vibe of these photos. Gosh, I can't wait to make our own moments just like these. I hope we get photos that look this happy and genuinely bursting with joy.

Awesome Cake

It's been a while since a cake caught my eye, but this one was just striking:

On EatCakeBeMerry

Gorgeous!