MAKARIOS {bless her heart}: Chalkboard Craze and other Wedding Crafts

Due to my inability to get school work done unless I am at the same time covered in paint, or glue, or browsing Pinterest for new ideas, I have to create all the time. {Case in point: I have a ton of work to do, my first final in grad school next Friday, my parents are coming up for a last minute visit this weekend, and I decided last night to paint my curtain in my bedroom, yes paint, because I didn't like how it looked}

All that being said, I spent the first few weeks of settling into my new apartment making do with the furniture that was already here, adding all of the little touches that my momma taught me, and starting on some really fun decorations for Katie for the wedding. I say Katie, because, duh, she's the bride. I don't think Josh would have cared at all if there were string chandeliers in the tree, or if the chalkboards looked just right {as I recall, at the Saturday night party he said he wished that the party was the reception, with the meat platters, tostitos chips, at all} So I spent quite a bit of time coming up with a few detailed touches to make things really special.

Katie wanted something hanging from the tree that they would be getting married under but didn't want anything that was too big, or too much, since the scenery itself was breath-taking. So I found these, and wrangled in one of my new roommates to help! It was just as its described, the "messiest, merriest, and whirliest" craft I've done in a while!

But seriously, they looked amazing! Even with the hard work of getting them in the tree {thank you, groomsmen! esp. my brother-in-law Jeff} it was totally worth it! In fact, I've decided to make some to hang over my bed as part of my headboard design {like I said, I must always be doing some sort of craft}

Onto the chalkboards...I've gotten a little chalkboard-paint-happy, and even though I keep telling myself there are only so many chalkboards you can have in one room, I keep painting more and more things with chalkboard paint. Up to date, I have painting 4 official chalkboards, one table top, a wine bottle, a basket sign, and used it as labels on glass storage bottles {more to come on that later}.

For Katie {and Josh, ok fine, he did actually care about how everything looked, and sent me the sweetest thank you note showing his appreciation...I have the best big brother in the world}, I found an old mirror and old picture frame at a local thrift store and used two of the other boards I had already made for wedding info. We used the big board {which I also glued a painted white, wooden "F" for personal touch} to be used as the wedding "program," used one for the list of the wedding part, and used to for signs that people could take pictures with for the guest book! {one had the chorus to their first dance song and the other stated that cute, new wedding statement: "Eat, Drink, and Be Married!"} I'm so thankful for all the brilliant, creative, minds out there that offer such good ideas for these things!