popping the question

This past weekend Austin and I asked twelve of our closest pals to stand up with us on our big day as our bridesmaids and groomsmen.  Because 1) we are living in the Pinterest era and 2) I enjoy being crafty, we decided to give the BMs and GMs a little something when we popped the big question.  

Here's a mini-tutorial on how I made the gifts...

For the girls, I decided to make a little poem placard that could hang on a bottle of wine.  The first thing you need to do is gather your materials.  Oh, and don't forget to wrangle up your sister's puppy to help you whilst you gather!

  

For 6-8 Bridesmaids, I used:

-Two 8.5 X 11 sheets of computer paper (whatever color you would like, but I chose off white)

-Two sheets of big scrapbook paper (again whatever design strikes your fancy)

-A paper cutter (or scissors)

-Scissors

-Corner Cropper (optional)

-Something small and circular to trace (it should be a little bit bigger than a quarter, or whatever size will fit over your bottles of wine)

-Scrapbook glue

-A pen 

-Miscellaneous decorations (I chose some pressed rose petals and heart stickers) 

Alright, after I got everything all set up and ready to go, the next thing I did was type up the poems, print them out, and then cut them into rectangles.         

You get extra bride cool points for crafting on a wedding magazine :)

The wording I chose goes like this:

(Name of bridesmaid)

On the day that I'm to be a bride,

It would mean the world

To have you sipping by my side.

I've got my man, but I still need my girls!

Be my Bridesmaid?

Jamie

The next step is to cut out your background paper.  This is kind of a guessing game.  I took one of my poem rectangles, placed it on the patterned scrapbook paper, and then made little marks where I wanted to cut.  From there, I used my paper cutter to get everybody into rectangle shape.  I also used this fancy corner cropper thing I have to make the edges round, but you could definitely omit this step.

Next, you'll want to trace your circles.  Measure to find the center of your background rectangle, and then trace your circle ON THE BACK using a pen.

From there, cut that circle out!  Also, make sure you make a little slit at the top so that you can hang it on the bottle of wine.  At this point, it should look like one of those "do not disturb" signs that you stick outside your hotel room.

Holey Moley

Once you have all of the circles cut out, the next couple of steps are pretty simple.  You'll want to glue on your decorations...

I used a mixture of scrapbook glue and a glue stick to get those petals to stick.

...then glue on your poem rectangle using the scrapbook glue.

Finally, I added on my little heart sticker:

Here are my finished products: 

Ok phew, we made it!  

Now for the tutorial on how I made the boys' presents.

Step one: tie a ribbon around a bottle of your groom's favorite whiskey.

Viola!  :)

 Here are our matron of honor and best man showing off their presents:

My older sister, Erin!

Austin's bestie/college roomie, Blake!

I'm working on a special meet the maids and men post to highlight our entire wedding party, but for now here's a quick peek my girls and Austin's boys.

Bridesmaids:

Erin "Fox" Westbrook: my matron of honor/sister/friend

Kathryn "KK" Dianiska: ones of my besties from high school dance team

Rebecca "Gabe" Gabriel: one of my besties from high school dance team/college roomie 

Ashlyn Flurry: my best friend from college/freshman year suitemate

Katie Polivka: my oldest, bestest friend that I met at my old dance studio

Kaitlin "Kaway" Whelan: one of my besties from high school dance team

Groomsmen:

Blake Whitlow: Austin's best friend and college roommate

Zac "Satch" Sims: one of Austin's best friends from college/Fish Camp that lives here in Dallas

Jeremy Staska: one of Austin's oldest/best friends

Caesar Vallejo: one of Austin's old friends from La Porte that lives here in Dallas 

Collin Veitenheimer: Austin's former boss and current friend that lives here in Dallas 

Kyle Wilkerson: one of Austin's oldest/best friends