Our Wedding: the soundtrack

Since our wedding, we’ve had an overwhelming number of emails, texts, and face-to-face requests for the songs used throughout the day. Music is a huge part of our lives and is nearly always playing in one or more rooms in our home so we spent quite a bit of time compiling the tracks played during our ceremony and reception. I’ve compiled our selections below. Enjoy!

Ceremony | processional, signing of the registry, recessional

Music played on acoustic guitar by Mike Labelle

Free by Zac Brown Band

In Your Atmosphere by John Mayer

Reception | entrance and slideshow soundtracks, first dances

Music played by DJ Super Dave

Beggin, Modcon | wedding party entrance

Mrs. Robinson, Simon & Garfunkle | B & C entrance

Our friend Sarah created a beautiful slideshow full of many memories. She arranged the photos to follow Ben growing up, me growing up, and our adventures together.

On Top of the World, Imagine Dragons | photos of B

Tongue Tied, Grouplove | photos of C

Home, Phillip Phillips | photos of B & C

Sweet Disposition, The Temper Trap | photos of B & C

Turning Page, Sleeping at Last | first dance

My Girl, The Temptations | father-daughter dance

A Mother’s Song, T Carter | mother-son dance

This is How we do it, Montel Jordan/ Wild Ones, Flo Rida (mash-up) | wedding party/ first party song

Ho Hey, The Lumineers | second to last song

Ruby Tuesday, The Rolling Stones | last song of the night

 

Our wedding reception was one huge dance party complete with dance (& sing) offs and some pretty impressive dance moves. Thank you to every single person who was a part of it and a huge thank you to DJ Super Dave who kept the dance floor FULL the entire night. 

What music did you use/ are you planning on using for your wedding? 

(All photos are by Adrian Photography). 

the bar cart.

Like many of you, I have been infatuated with the gorgeous, vintage-inspired bar carts that have been flooding the pages of Apartment Therapy, Design Sponge, and other design blogs. The recent revival of the bar cart has inspired a series of bar cart styling posts that I’ve devoured for the past year. After reading through a number of posts, I noticed an over-arching theme: the bar carts were almost all thrifted or snatched up at an estate sale or flea market. Realizing that it may take years to acquire such a piece (and that I had no immediate plans to attend the Rose Bowl Flea Market – an antique gold mine), I chalked it up to a pipe dream and went on my merry way.

You know the notion that you’ll find it when you stop looking for it?  I literally stumbled upon this bar cart. For real. I walked right into it, covered in dust and altogether tarnished, at a local thrift shop. After a double take, I pushed its squeaky wheels across the store to the cash register and down the street to my car screaming “start the CAR!!” in my head.

Once I got it home I remembered I was in the process of planning two weddings so this project was put on hold for a couple months. This fall, Ben dissembled the cart and we took the shelves to a local glass shop, hoping to have two pieces of glass cut for the shelves. Due to the shape of the shelves neither glass nor mirror worked. Enter backup plan # 3: high gloss black spray paint. After a good polishing and a few coats of spray paint, I’m really happy with how it turned out.  

Now reassembled, I’m tasked with the ever-daunting but exciting task of styling the cart.  Although there are still a few items on my wish list, I’ve hoarded cultivated several key elements over the past few months which gives me a base to work with. 

- Vintage Cocktails book - Anthropologie
- champagne glasses + drink tray - vintage
- martini shakers and wine chiller - Homesense
- paper straws - gifted from a Wedding Belle
- pink flamingo olive picks - a local party store

I'm thrilled that our bar is fully stocked just in time for the holiday season.

Do you have a bar cart/ shelf/ or hutch? What are your essentials? 

bar cart inspiration + tips on how to build a bar:

Society Social

Cupcakes and Cashmere

The Life Styled

The Glitter Guide

Matchbook Magazine

Faceted Vase DIY

As if there was any question, I am officially in full-on holiday mode (as of November 12, to be exact). This means there are decorations up in my house (for real) and that I'm lining up my holiday craft projects in an attempt to get organized before December 1. I love the idea of incorporating items you already own into holiday installations; it's cost effective and leaves you with minimal items to store.

The modern faceted vase tutorial on Oh Happy Day is this kind of project. I think it would be a perfect centerpiece for a holiday table or mantel decoration for New Years Eve, don't you?



(tutorial + photo courtesy of Oh Happy Day - photo by Kate Nicholson).

gift idea: for your favourite crafter

In the event you prescribe to the same let's-get-organized-sooner-rather-than-later school of thought as I do and/or you want to brighten the day of your favourite crafty friend and/or you’re looking for a few cost-effective and thoughtful gift ideas, you’ll be interested in the digital craft book A Hip Handmade Holiday.  Alison + Susan have compiled 18 original holiday craft ideas with tips, instructional videos, and printables.  Buy it here.  

Thanks to Natalie (of Nat the Fat Rat) who featured the book yesterday for the great gift idea. 

(image + digital craft book courtesy of the craft pack).

Our Wedding: the invitations.

Ben & I decided early on that we wanted our wedding invitations to be unique, personalized, and fun. We quickly set to work on the content, editing his version and my version together to create our story. When it came time to design the invitation I looked to one of my favourite people - Jessica Luch - who also happens to be a creative genius and a graphic designer. I provided Jess with a few pieces of inspiration and asked that it resemble an artistic poster; what she came up with was more than I could have ever imagined. 

Jess linked me up with Manna of Modus Paperie & Press in Vancouver who printed our invitations by letterpress. The beauty of letterpress is that each invitation is hand-printed and therefore unique which is such a special touch.  

The personalization of the envelopes and the postage was a labour of love. After ordering this stamp (by Elise) I knew I had to incorporate it into our invites. Together my bridesmaid Jillian and I shared a bottle of wine and had a ball scripting personalized messages for the envelopes. It was a fun & unexpected way of incorporating personality into our invites. This gorgeous postage stamp featuring Smoothly She Shifted by Canadian artist Joe Fafard was the final touch, tying together our eclectic black and white motif. 

I'm so proud of our invitations and how they became a conversation piece and a true representation of Ben + me. The feedback we received from our guests was overwhelming. We have one framed in our room; they are literally a work of art. 

(invitations designed by Jessica Luch and printed by Modus Paperie & Press. top + bottom photos by Adrian Photography; center photos processed with Instagram). 

autumnal love

Autumn is my favourite season. Around these parts we're warming up with new hand-knit sweaters, stocking up at the last farmers' market of the year, enjoying pub favourites (deep fried pickles rule my world), getting crafty with DIY projects, baking delicious birthday treats (happy birthday, Jen!), walking through crunchy leaves, adorning the front door with pink pumpkins, and prepping for Wednesday with a couple of favourite halloween decorations.

My heart is happy. What is your favourite thing about fall?




(images processed with Instagram. follow along: username cstarevents).

Halloween Cat Bunting

This week I was inspired by my new dress and Rubyellen's string lights and decided to create Halloween cat bunting for our entryway.  Even though I'm not a "cat person" this fun project is a homage to the year 6 years I went trick-or-treating as a black cat.  

supplies: 

- black felt

- string/ ribbon/ rik rak

- dressmakers pins

- fabric scissors 

- sewing machine

directions:
- create a template of the cat head. I drew mine free-hand but there are many clip art images online that would work, too.
- pin template to felt and cut out. Don't be too concerned about making each one perfect; felt holds its shape really well (& I'm partial to variations of the same template).
- sew to string/ ribbon
- hang!


Once I hung the bunting the cats looked lonely and needed something more so I sewed a string of triangle bunting out of the left over felt and hung them together. The result is more whimsical than spooky but that's fine by me. It was a cost effective project (less than $5 to complete) that I assembled in a couple hours. Bonus: it's a holiday decoration that will be easy to store!


Have you crafted anything for Halloween? 

dream bank.

Every once in a while a product comes along that makes me excited. Enter:  Uncommon Goods' Dream Bank.

Isn't this the perfect way to get excited about a future trip, outfit, or pet? I can also see it as an effective aide to help teach a child how to save money for a special purchase. Heck, it would work on me. Consider this one wish-listed!

Thanks to my sister Jenn for telling me about this.




(photo courtesy of uncommon goods).

Happy Monday

I need this print for my desk at work. Happy Monday, y'all!


(image courtesy of Print Press by Flea Market Trixie).

wedding project [seven]: the L-O-V-E sign

As promised, here are the details of our LOVE sign, one of the most well-received (and well-photographed) elements of the reception. 

It must be noted that this project was a last minute a decision but a decision I am very glad I made. After seeing this tutorial, I became obsessed with incorporating Jordan's fabulous Marquee letters into the reception. "LOVE" was the opportune word. 

details: 

I assembled the supplies and enlisted the design talents of my friend Angie and the fabrication help of my amazing aunt Cath and creatively-inclined cousin Nico. We cut, scored, folded, and taped in the August sunshine, adapting Jordan's tutorial as we went based on the tools we had available. We ended up using the following supplies:

- a string of 25 globe lights

- poster board (x3)

- foam core board (x3)

- exacto knife/ steak knife/ scissors/ pen (for shaping the holes for the lights)

- duct tape

- scotch tape

- rulers

- cutting mat

- spray paint

Once I printed out Angie's template (which printed on 24 letter-sized pages) we taped the letters together and used them to trace onto the foam core board with pencil. There is a "front" and a "back" of the foam core board (one has a slight grid pattern). Once it's spray painted the grid pattern will still be visible; this may or may not be a big deal to you. Consider yourself warned. 

Once the letters were cut out with an array of cutting tools (we got creative) we were left with letters that had somewhat sloppy edges. This is OK as they'll be covered with the strips of poster board. 

Folding the poster board to wrap cleanly around the letters is the tricky part. We followed Jordan's steps which were very straightforward and logical (scoring is KEY). That being said, I recommend that you not attempt this project alone as the logistical/ mathematical/ fabrication part (this includes but is not limited to measuring, determining what part of the edging is the front vs. the back, scoring, folding, holding-in-place, and taping) is a feat in and of itself. Cath and I bounced ideas off of each other, laughed at each other's confusion, and - in the most general of terms - kept each other sane. I couldn't have done it without her.

Another modification we made had to do with the placement of the lights. The string of lights I ordered off of Amazon didn't come with the template that Jordan refers to; therefore, Cath and I divided the total number of lights [25] by the number of letters we had [4] and spaced them out accordingly (the "E" received two extra lights).

Once the letters were sprayed and the lights added it became an instant piece of art. Initially I planned on using the lights in the backyard but I've since decided to keep the letters intact for C Star Headquarters. I love this sign so much and I can't wait to experiment with this project again in the future. Anyone up for craft night?

up next:

Incredibly fun place card holders.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... Go!

Ikea Campaign Chest DIY

There are many-an-Ikea-Hack floating around the Internet; you've no doubt come across them on Pinterest.  I'd like to suggest that this Campaign Chest DIY is one of the best.

Louisa of For Chic Sake has mapped out a brilliant DIY tutorial with easy to follow steps and links to all of the supplies she used. I've bookmarked this fuchsia beauty for a future project as it's a very cost effective way to give a tired chest of drawers a make over. 

Visit For Chic Sake for the details and links to many other project details. 

(images courtesy of For Chic Sake).