Fancy Fascinators!

My mom bought a gorgeous dress for my sister's vow renewal.  I absolutely loved it.
And she liked to brag that she got it for .98cents.
not really though... it was $20.98 and she had a $20 gift card... but still a great deal.
When she was trying on the dress (at Belk) there was a headband fascinator that she fell in love with, but it was $50 and she was too cheap to buy it (I don't blame her one bit) . Then it went on sale for $30 and my dad wanted to get it for her for Christmas but by the time we went back to the store it was gone.
So I did what any other DIY loving girl would do I set to make one myself!
I never saw the original one from Belk.... actually until just now when I thought to see if they had it online, duh.

 I'm actually glad I didn't see this one because I don't really like it that much...

Here is the one I made my momma!

It matched her dress perfectly!
It only cost about $4 to make:
.25cents for a 12inch cut of blue tulle
.99cents for the blue flower in the center from the wedding floral section of Hobby Lobby
.99cents for the blue beads
$1 for the black feathers
Free - the jeweled centerpiece (it came in a misc bag of stuff my dad bought off Ebay, used to be a clip on earring!)

I liked it so much I made some for my nieces to wear for the ceremony too!

I whipped one up for my other sister last minute, she thought her outfit needed a little extra something so she got a broach of mine, chicken feathers from my dad's chickens in the yard, and a headband. serious! and it turned out so cute!

Want to see more of our awesome New Year's Party??
Decorations
What We Wore
Photo Booth

Photo Booth!

I made my first photo booth for my sister's vow renewal and learned serveral things in doing so...

#1. don't have a shiny background.
in my defense, I didn't know it'd be shiny. I bought wrapping paper to use as the background and didn't realize that it'd be plastic and not paper. false advertisement if you ask me.

#2. make sure people know what it is.
several people didn't get it. advertise to the party guests. go first and look like you're having fun!

#3. have lots of props!
we had masks and hats and it really brought out some people's personalities.

So much fun, I wish I had done one at my wedding!  :(

New Year's Vow Renewal Decorations

I'm still alive! Sorry I've been so MIA lately the holidays were CRAZY!
My husband and I visited family in Canada and the US and our house has been FULL of people and fun stuff going on so I was way too busy to blog.
But alas the family has all gone home, my husband is in Canada for 8 weeks studying for the USMLE (licensing exam for doctors) and I am here waiting anxiously to be called for a job! shew.
anyway...
I've only been talking about my sister's vow renewal for an entire year and it's already came and went!
It turned out beautifully and went off without a hitch.
well aside from the music not working... microphone set up next to a CD player it was!
I'll share the pictures in steps... today the decorations!
We decided to do every table a little different and I am so please with how they turned out.  I didn't really stick to the plan so they are quite different than my inspiration images, but still beautiful and wintery.
Sometimes a girl just has to go with what's on clearance, right?
and don't worry, I found something to wear! at a yard sale! more about it later.

 Hot Chocolate and smores bar by the fireplace!

The stage

So what did you do New Year's Eve?

Saturday Afternoon Picnik

My sister and her husband are doing a vow renewal this New Years!!
I think I am more excited about it than my sister is :)
I have so many ideas and projects I'm working on for her big day!

I recently took on the task of making her save the dates.  I know, it's on New Years and she hasn't sent out save the dates yet.... but they really are more fun than they are informational.  Everyone who's anyone already knows.

So where does a girl like me go to create save the dates??
Picnik of course!
I tried other avenues and really just decided that picnik was easiest!

Here are a few that I made. 
We finally got to the last one because my sister kept saying fancier! fancier!








Happy 10 years of marriage to my sister Molly and her husband Rocky!
I cannot wait to help you celebrate and ring in the new year with all our family and friends!

a saturday afternoon picnik #6

This week for our anniversary I spent some time editing some of our wedding pictures.  I have a picture of us in the "getaway" car that I love, but unfortunately my Aunt and Uncle are just chilling the bacground kinda messing it up... so I erased them!

This is only available with a premium picnik account (it's only $25 for the whole year!)

Under the advanced tab there is a feature called Cloning.With the cloning feature you can select a point in the picture and copy it elsewhere on the image.
Here is the original image -

Love you Uncle Larry but your bright yellow shirt has got to go...

What I did was clone the trees in the background to kind of cover up my uncle.  Then I did the same technique with the car to cover up my aunt.  I'd do a play by play but it would take a million images to show... this is a slow process of changing the area you're getting the cloned image from and changing the size of the area to fit in very small spaces like the car around Lee's head.

Here is the after. 

The trees look a little funny, but would you notice if you weren't looking for it?? I probably wouldn't.

 I decided to try it out in black and white as well to see the difference.

 What do you think?
I think Picnik should hire me as an advertiser! :)

Wedding on my mind

While watching the Royal Wedding of William and Kate I got somewhat "homesick" for my own wedding.  We've been married nearly 2 years now!
2 incredible, perfect years.
I hear a lot of people say how difficult the first year is, and how difficult it is to move far away with only your husband, and how difficult marriage is in general...
apparently these people didn't marry Lee Coghill.
He makes loving him so easy and perhaps I'm easily adaptable, or we were just made for each other.
whatever the case may be we too had a fairytale wedding and I'll share a few pictures from the day with you. or a lot of pictures.

 still the most beautiful dress I have ever seen. 

 my program fans I worked so hard to make.

we threw sprinkles!! 

my hand painted shoes :)

 8 flower girls and a ring bearer = chaos. lol

 coloring pictures of Lee and I for the kiddos!

 wedding favors that are from a plant that Lee's grandfather gave to his mom, who gave it to me!

 candy table!

some centerpieces

 happy happy happy!

 :) and the best was my my little adopted grandma started a train around the reception! hahaha. crazy lady!!

So that was our day.  August 22, 2009.
it was beautiful, not-so-perfect, and budget friendly.

Did today's Royal Wedding make you long for your own wedding??