Just a quick preview of my mom’s most difficult project for the wedding: the Ann Wood-inspired cake topper birds!

We’re still making some little changes… Or rather, my poor mom is making the changes per my requests. Let’s just say that I’m lucky that my mom loves me. But it just kills me how little stuffed animals can have so much personality. I also think that Mr. R will like that the boy bird looks kind of like a penguin.

Forty-two blue bags, all in a row (excuse the terrible iPhone photo)…

I’m a little bit ahead of myself, but I assembled our welcome bags this week and seeing them in my dining room makes me even more anxious for April get here.

I originally bought paper bags from Target, but my test run made it clear that they weren’t big enough. At first I decided to leave out one of the beverages and just cram everything else in there, but the bags also seemed too plain and I couldn’t find a way of dressing them up that I really liked. Doing a label over the top to seal them wasn’t an option because they were so full, and wide satin ribbon for 42 bags costs a fortune. So I returned them and bought larger, sustainable, reusable bags from Paper Mart — for the same price!

They don’t stand up well on their own, but I had a ton of extra chipboard laying around, so I cut 8.5″x11″ sheets in half and put them in the bottoms for support.

I didn’t want any of the paper goods to get lost in the bottom of the bag, so I bought 9″x12″ clear envelopes in bulk on eBay (less than $9 for 100) and put everything in there.

From left: clear envelopes, eBay ($9); Travel Salem guide, visitors center (free); Oregon state maps, state department (free); Willamette Valley wineries guides, WVWA ($25 for 50); welcome cards, printed at home on leftover Eames Furniture Weave cover stock (free); Oregon postcards, printed for free through VistaPrint (free); Oregon stickers, Heart in Oregon ($20 for 50).

Several months ago, I went to Costco and priced a ton of beverages, snacks and candies to figure out what I wanted to put in the bags. I settled on Sunchips, mini chocolate chip cookies, peppermint patties, bottled water, S. Pellegrino, assorted nuts, dried fruit and ginger cookies. (That’s one of the returned Target bags hanging out in the background.)

I didn’t like the nut assortments that came in individual packages, so I bought spice jars at Ikea and then layered in chocolate-covered raisins, almonds, walnuts and peanuts.

And the ginger cookies came in bulk, so I ordered super cheap little glassine bakery bags on eBay, split the cookies between them and sewed them closed with my sewing machine.

I have to do the same thing for the dried fruit, but I have to do that closer to the wedding.

I absolutely cannot wait to hand these out! But here’s a logistics question for all you brides out there: Did you run into any trouble with the hotels accepting the bags, distributing them to the guests, etc.? I was hoping that I could bring them to the hotel with a list of guests and each party’s arrival date, but any guidance would be appreciated.

Since I originally wrote about music in October, I’ve been adding songs to an iTunes playlist as they come to mind or as I play them. Last weekend, Josh and I drove to my parents’ and back, and on our way home, we went through his (extensive) music collection and picked even more songs for the reception.

The only problem: We now have more than eight hours of music for a four-hour reception. Oops! And we haven’t even tackled our list of “artists we need more tracks by” (ABBA, Janet Jackson and Lenny Kravitz, just to name a few). Here’s our unedited list, by approximate genre. (Mr. R is the genre king and would certainly disapprove of these sweeping categorizations… ;)

Oldies through Early 90s
ABBA, Dancing Queen
Alison Krauss, When You Say Nothing At All
B52s, Love Shack
Bay City Rollers, I Only Want to Be With You
Beach Boys, God Only Knows
Beach Boys, Wouldn’t It Be Nice
Beach Boys, Kokomo
Beatles, Ob-la-di
Beatles, She Loves You
Billy Idol, White Wedding
Cranberries, Dreams
The Cure, Friday I’m in Love
Dead or Alive, You Spin Me ‘Round
Dramarama, Anything, Anything
Edwyn Collins, A Girl Like You
Gloria Estefan, 1-2-3
Hall & Oates, You Make My Dreams Come True
INXS, Need You Tonight
The Mamas & the Papas, California Dreamin’
Mike & the Mechanics, Par Avion
Phil Collins, You Can’t Hurry Love
Phil Collins, Two Hearts
Phil Collins, A Groovy Kind Of Love
Police, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Sade, Smooth Operator
Sade, No Ordinary Love
Spandau Ballet, True
Thompson Twins, Hold Me Now

Singer-songwriters, Piano Rock, etc.
Air, Cherry Blossom Girl
The Autumn Film, Can This Be
Chairlift, Bruises
Chantal Kreviazuk, Feels Like Home
Duffy, Mercy
Duffy, Oh Boy
Eastmountainsouth, So Are You to Me
Feist, 1234
A Fine Frenzy, You Picked Me
Flunk, On My Balcony
Frou Frou, It’s Good To Be In Love
Goo Goo Dolls, Slide
Goo Goo Dolls, Iris
Greg Laswell, I’d Be Lying
Ingrid Michaelson, Giving Up
Ingrid Michaelson, Way I Am
Jon McLaughlin, So Close
Kent, Quiet Heart
KT Tunstall, Universe & U
Michelle Featherstone, We Are Man and Wife
Missy Higgins, Warm Whispers
Sara Bareilles, One Sweet Love
Sarah McLachlan, Ice Cream
Shivaree, All Because You Told Me So

Jazz
Diana Krall, Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You
Diana Krall, I’ve Got You Under My Skin
Duo Mecanico, Love Luxury
Ella Fitzgerald, Ain’t Misbehavin’
Ella Fitzgerald, Isn’t It Romantic
Ella Fitzgerald, Sentimental Reasons
Etta James, At Last
Nat King Cole, When I Fall In Love
Nat King Cole, You’ll Never Know
Norah Jones, Come Away With Me
Norah Jones, The Nearness of You
Renee Olstead, Taking a Chance on Love
Renee Olstead, A Love That Will Last
Renee Olstead, Sunday Kind of Love
Tony Bennett, The Very Thought of You
Tony Bennett, Alright, Okay, You Win

Pop
Barenaked Ladies, Light Up My Room
Britney Spears, (You Drive Me) Crazy
The Cardigans, Been It
Christina Aguilera, Candyman
Colbie Caillat, Magic
The Darkness, I Believe in a Thing Called Love
Edwin McCain, I’ll Be
Gwen Stefani, Wind It Up
Gwen Stefani, The Sweet Escape
Lady Gaga, Just Dance
Letters to Cleo, I Want You To Want Me
Madonna, Cherish
Madonna, Express Yourself
Madonna, Holiday
Natasha Bedingfield, These Words
Pussycat Dolls, Wait a Minute
Ryan Cabrera, True
Shakira, Whenever, Wherever
Smash Mouth, Then the Morning Comes
Sugar Ray, Someday
Tal Bachman, She’s So High
Third Eye Blind, Never Let You Go
Vanessa Williams, Save the Best for Last

Hip-hop & R&B
Alicia Keys, No One
Alicia Keys, If I Ain’t Got You
Aretha Franklin, Natural Woman
Ashanti, Happy
Beyoncé, Crazy in Love
Black Eyed Peas, Don’t Phunk With My Heart
Cassie, Me & U
Ciara, 1, 2 Step
Common, Light
Fergie, Clumsy
Kanye West, Flashing Lights
Rihanna, Pon De Replay
Outkast, Hey Ya!
Timbaland, The Way I Are
TLC, Diggin’ On You

Rock, Alternative, etc.
The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Around the Bend
Blaqk Audio, Semiotic Love
Blue October, Into the Ocean
Coldplay, The Scientist
Dave Matthews Band, The Space Between
Dave Matthews Band, Angel
Dave Matthews Band, American Baby
Death Cab for Cutie, I Will Follow You Into the Dark
Fall Out Boy, Dance, Dance
The Fray, You Found Me
The Fray, Look After You
Gnarls Barkley, Crazy
Gorillaz, Feel Good Inc.
Hard-Fi, Gotta Reason
Jimmy Eat World, A Praise Chorus
The Killers, Read My Mind
Maroon 5, Sunday Morning
Oasis, Wonderwall
The Postal Service, Such Great Heights
Robin S, Show Me Love
Shiny Toy Guns, I Owe You a Love Song
Smashing Pumpkins, Beautiful
Smashing Pumpkins, Perfect
Smashing Pumpkins, Tonight, Tonight
Smashing Pumpkins, Today
Tegan & Sara, Take Me Anywhere
U2, Sweetest Thing
The White Stripes, Fell in Love With a Girl
Yellowcard, Dear Bobbie

Soundtracks
Grease, The One That I Want
Moulin Rouge, Your Song
Moulin Rouge, Come What May
Once, Falling Slowly

Who doesn’t want to be showered with rose petals?

Martha has some directions for making cones, and that was a good place to start. But the cones will be sitting on the chairs along the isle, and I thought that the petals would fall out if the cones were shaped like ice cream cones.

First, I cut some subtly shimmery blue paper down to 8.5″ squares. I skipped rounding the tops and started experimenting with adhesives. Craft glue is way too messy and takes forever to dry, but mono adhesive doesn’t have enough hold. Good ol’ double-stick tape to the rescue:

Then I rolled the non-taped edge inward toward the taped edge, making the cone as wide as possible.

They came out in wildly different sizes, but I’m telling myself that that’s part of the charm.

Of course, what good are petal cones if no one knows what to do with them? I wasn’t convinced that my mention of “petal toss and recessional” in the program would be sufficient, so I made little tags for the cones. “When the newlyweds walk your way, toss the petals and shout hooray!” I wish I could take credit for the wording, but that’s all Laurie (via OnceWed).

I attached them to the cones with one of my very favorite things, Stampin’ Up mini library clips.

Now they’re with the gigantic Rubbermaid of vintage glassware, ready to go to the florist in a few weeks. It’s hard to believe that I have my final meeting with the florist in less than a month. Keep your fingers crossed for peonies and lily of the valley…

They say that if you’re going to do boutonnieres, you ought to do corsages too. And I definitely wanted bouts. They were the only thing I had picked out before I got engaged. I don’t know where the MSW editors found this super-petite lily of the valley, but it’s so beautiful against the lamb’s ear leaf.

Corsages are something you don’t see very often in magazines, on websites, or anywhere else for that matter. For me, corsage was synonymous with prom fixture, and I wasn’t feeling it… fussy, traditional, baby’s breath, miniature roses, and, umm, no. I certainly wouldn’t want to walk around for five hours with one of these on my wrist or pinned to my chest:

Maybe I’m alone, but I wasn’t going to subject anyone else to that. And was anyone else shocked at the cost of corsages? No way I could justify that kind of pricetag for something I wasn’t crazy about in the first place.

So I started thinking of non-traditional ideas, and I settled on silk flower pins. I figured I could pin them to a ribbon (so they could be worn as wristlets during the ceremony), and then people could remove them from the ribbon and attach them to purses or coats in the future. And, lo’ and behold, I walked into the Limited one day and found soft, luxurious satin flower pins for 70% off!

So pretty on my custom-dyed Cam Creations ribbon, but they’re too tall, so the flower flops around. I deconstructed one of them and thought about hot gluing it to the ribbon sans pin, but it would’ve looked sloppy, and the whole idea was to have a removable pin.

I happened to have some pink silk peonies around that I bought on impulse from Etsy awhile back, so I cut the wire stems off of them and hot glued them onto the ribbon instead. The result isn’t as dramatic, but it was definitely more of a success from a wearability point of view.

Now I have these wristlets and the original flower pins, which people could just pin to their dresses. I might let them choose, or maybe I’ll save the pins and use them for something else.

Inspired by an entry on Style Me Pretty, I had to make coat check tags. I just had to. I’ve repeatedly referred to it as the most frivilous of all my DIY projects, but I am not ashamed. They’re sweet and lovely and simply must be.

I designed the template in InDesign using our invitation typefaces (Adobe Garamond and Burgues) and colors, and I printed them on Eames Furniture Weave 120#, the same paper I’m using for the escort cards and table numbers. I went ahead and printed them on my Canon PIXMA, as I have other things for the wedding. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how well that little guy does. This coming from the girl who wanted to have every single little thing letterpressed… It’s a big step for me to use an inkjet for these things. I cut the 96 of them down to size with my Marvy rotary trimmer.

In the middle, I swapped out the cutting cartridge for the perforation blade so the ticket can be easily torn off the bottom. Then they were ready for the X-acto and metal ruler to trim the corners.

My mom let me borrow her Crop-a-dile for setting the eyelets. Between the X-acto and Crop-a-dile, my hand was a permanent claw by the time I finished these up at 3:30 a.m., but it was so worth it and way quicker than setting the eyelets by hand. If you use eyelets very often, I highly recommend shelling out the $30 for one of these. The 1/8″ eyelets I used came in a package of 100 for $3 at Michaels.

Then I just trimmed and knotted the embroidery floss. A couple of photos of a finished tag…

That same night, I also printed off some coordinating signs for reserved seats, the escort card board, and the card trunk.

If you’re interested in the InDesign CS3 template for the tags or the signs, leave a comment or send me an email and I’d be more than happy to send them along!