The Bathrooms at the Carriage House: Decor Ideas? HELP!

So, one thing that I've been thinking about, but haven't done anything about yet, is decor for the Carriage House bathrooms. There are two bathrooms--one for men, and one for the ladies--each with 2-3 stalls.

The bathrooms themselves are just fine, but I'm not so sure about the decor of them. I may be going off the deep end a bit with even THINKING about bathrooms at our wedding (and if I am, please slap me!), but the only things I'd add to both bathrooms are the following:

1. 2 sink skirts--replacing this ghastly floral print with ivory cotton fabric. These are easy enough to make. We just need their measurements, details on how they hang, and elastic around the top of the skirt for ease of sliding.

2. 2 chair bottom coverings (one for each chair in each bathroom)--again, replacing said floral print with simple ivory cotton. We may not even need to sew anything, just get fabric and wrap the bottom cushions, securing with safety pins around the backsides.

3. 2 quart size mason jars of fresh flowers--we'd need to add that to our flower list for Judy, making it a total of 8 dining table quart-size jars, 1 milk jar for guest book table, 1 pint-size jar with handle for guest book table, 1 quart-size jar with handle for guest book table, 1 quart-size jar for sign outside of Carriage House, 4 pint-sized jars for tables in garden area, 4 pint-sized jars for tiny tables lining dance hall of Carriage House, and NOW 2 quart-sized mason jars for each bathroom, making all of this silliness a total of TWENTY-TWO flower jars.

4. A bowl of mints in the gentlemen

5. A fixer-upper kit for the ladies, including nail polish remover, deodorant stick, cotton balls, hair spray, lip gloss, tampons, Advil, or anything else that anyone can think of. I need help in this department! WHAT do YOU need?

Any thoughts on this would be SO appreciated!!

Jam Jar Candles and Lace Votives

I absolutely love these jam jar candles I tried my hand at making a few weeks ago--so easy to create! They're made with vellum paper--a cool crisscross pattern and a floral pattern--and twine ribbon. Inside, we'll have our electric tea lights, and then line 10 of these beauties along the white carriage rail--behind the escort card tree display--right when you walk in.
















The lace votives are also pretty adorable. These are quick to make with a glue gun: glass votive, vintage lace from the 30s and 40s (courtesy of Etsy!), and twine to top it off. Three will go on each table in the dining room (24 total), and perhaps a few on the cake table.

A First Whack at Framed Table Cards: WHADDYA THINK?

I designed this table card frame with a 4 x 6 expresso wooden picture frame, wooden number from Joanne Fabric, craft paper from Michaels, and paper flowers by Martha Stewart. The great thing about leaving the wooden numbers natural, is that they pick up and incorporate the twine bow/ribbon around the flowers vases and lace votives, making things a little more organic. I haven't tried staining a number yet. What do you think?

My idea for the table cards/frames was to make each one unique, with its own background stationary and highlighting flowers--all within out color palette, naturally. Below are a few pictures, the first of our trial run at Oatlands with just the flowers, linens, and napkins (to help put the table cards/frames in context!).

Guest Book Table Layout Ideas: Thoughts?

So, I was playing around with the layout of our guest book table pieces, and came up with this layout with apothecary jars, antique typewriter keys, typewriter, picture, and a 1890s blackboard. The "feel" I'm going for is welcoming, rustic, whimsical, a bit of home spun, and something that will make you stop and look at all the details as guests write us well wishes and good tidings.

In these pictures, the flowers are obviously NOT the flowers we're using--too monochromatic--and we're missing more pens for the pen jar, more simple ivory stationary cards and envelopes (only three are shown here) with calligraphy "To Chris & Ally" on the envelopes, typewriter paper, pretty handwriting for the "Well Wishes" jar, and of course, pretty handwriting for the "Guest Table" blackboard (did I mention I hate my handwriting?). Um, anyone want to do the handwriting? Otherwise, I'll send to Debi our amazing calligrapher for the Well Wishes label. The blackboard, though, I'll need some help!

So, what do you think? Remember that all of these elements will be on this table in the Oatlands' Carriage House.

Our Band!! Conor Malone from Ireland!!!

So, last week, before my raging flu and bronchitis set in, we met with our lovely band. We're even MORE excited than ever before about the music at our event--and are especially honored to have Conor Malone singing and playing guitar.

Conor Malone hails from Ireland, and has a voice that will break you (in a good way). He had a cameo appearance in the movie "The Comittments" (awesome flick!), and was given a $100 tip--during his street playing guitar days--by Jerry Garcia from the "Grateful Dead." Currenly, Conor tours the DC metro area, and has quite a line-up of performances all through Maryland, Virginia, and the district. You can check some of these out on his website.

Other members of our band will include 1 fiddler, 1 mandolin player, and 1 Irish drum player, to accompany Conor's vocals and guitar.

For the ceremony, we are feauturing two processional songs: one for Jen and Patrick, and one for me and dad. For Jen and Patrick, we are going with Shebeg Sheemore (which you can hear a sample of on the Celtic Music page, even though this particular sample has flute and harp, which we will not have). For me and dad, we'll be walking down the aisle to O'Carollan's Draught--a song that's fresh and sweet and puts me at ease! Conor's version isn't available online--only via his CD, but there are some basic versons online, such as the one linked here, and another one on YouTube. For the recessional, we've selected Haste to the Wedding, a kick ass fun Irish reel that Chris and I have always loved. The actual version they'll play isn't available online, but here's one version of it that's a lot of fun.

During the cocktail hour, the band will play a variety of traditional Irish reels and jigs.

For our first dance, we've selected Planxty Irwin--translated from the Gailec, it means "in the honor of the family of Irwin," which were songs written in the 16th century. It's a lovely song, and will go beautifully with our waltz dance training! There are so many versions of Planxty Irwin, but Conor will be leading the song to a waltz beat. Loads of versions are online, but none of them exactly what we'll be dancing to--with the beat of a fiddle, mandolin, drums, and Conor's guitar--but here are two samples: the first on the Celtic Wedding website, and the second on free MP3 snippets. We decided not to go with the Sweetheart Tree, as Planxty fit the overall feel of the event, and works better with our musicians. Our plan, instead, is to use "The Sweetheart Tree" for our rehearsal dinner slideshow!!

After the first dance, the band will play a few more waltzes, beginning with one for me and dad, then one for Chris and his mom. After that, we will open the floor to waltz to ease the crowd into the feel of the evening.

After waltz, we will have our dance caller start the Ceilidh (pronounced Cay-lee) for a few rounds! It's loads of fun, and is a traditional Irish dance. Amateurs can learn easily--it's only three steps! You can see lots of amatuers having a blast doing the ceilidh dance on UTube, such as this one, or you can see them more polished, slow and graceful, such as the dance in Pride and Prejudice.

As the Ceilidh is incredibly taxing (!), we will only ave three rounds or so, and then open the floor to reels and jugs (fun for dancing the polka to!, which is easy enough to fake if you know a one-two step and like to move fast!) and pub tunes from Conor's playlist!

We hope for an evening of joy and fun and music you've never heard anywhere else. With Conor's voice, our awesome dance caller, and amazing musicians, we're SO excited to get our party started.

Escort Card Sign: Thoughts on Wording, Design

So, the escort card table is a piece of the decor I'm really excited about! The table (3-feet) will be draped in our ivory topper and linen and placed in front of the white carriage rail, right as you walk in. On top, will be a display of manzanita branches, arranged beautifully in a clear vase/large apothecary jar, and decorated with brown paper leaves with different color blossoms in shades of purple and lilac. The vase will be labeled with something sweet "The Sweetheart Tree" or maybe just twine/ribbon. Still experimenting.

On the table itself, will be the actual escort cards--brown paper leaves and purple blossoms, with guests names written on the first and second leaves with table number. These will be arranges alphabetically by last name, and arranged in rows (I'm still experimenting with a round or circular display of the cards, but it's proving more complicated than something more linear.) The effect of the escort leaf cards under the tree is intended to be one of a dogwood shedding itself in fall time, all the beautiful debris that sprinkles on the ground in autumn. No escort cards will be placed in the tree--the leaves here are just for decor, and to unify the table top with the arrangement.

Finally, suspended in front of the table, will be a a sign encouraging guests to find their seat. I have two options for the look and feel of the sign, as well as a host of wording options. I welcome all thoughts and votes!

Here are the wording options--WHAT DO YOU THINK??!:

#1: Please find your seat
#2: Find your seat
#3: Please find your table
#4: Find your table
#5: Take a seat

Here are the sign decor options (just two, so far)--WHAT DO YOU THINK?!!