DIY Wedding

I've blogged about before, during, and after our wedding and now it's time to talk about all things that were "Do It Yourself" at our humble day of tying the knot. Our goal was to make the wedding all about our personalities. We didn't want things to appear stiff or lack feeling. We wanted everyone to feel the warmth and love that we feel for each other. I truly hope that we accomplished this and that everyone was able to see the hard work and effort we put into the day.

Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

First things first. I had to ask my girls to be my bridesmaids. These cards kind of started project DIY. They gave me inspiration to get crafty!

Will you be my Bridesmaid?

Save the Date!

Next we worked on sending our our Save the Dates. We wanted to do something fun and out of the box. Something that would sum up or wedding day. We decided to make a video montage of us dancing everywhere...and when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. Jeremy drew the artwork and I put together the DVD packaging and invitations inside. I was so anxious to mail these out for everyone to see!

Save the Date!

Return to Sender

A real task at hand was getting the invitations put together and in the mail ON TIME. With Jeremy's help at the last minute, I managed to do so. Phew! I wanted to create something simple, fun, and classy. The corners may not have been straight on every invitation but know that I hand-cut and glued every paper, putting my heart into each one of them. I tried using a paper cutter but I tend to be a perfectionist and it was just taking too long to pin-point where the lines fell to cut straight. Cutting by hand seemed to be much easier. I decided to use rounded corners to soften the look of the invite requiring me to do even more cutting. Fun! The trick is to zone out by either listening to music or just thinking about life in general. It actually ended up being very therapeutic. I loved every second of it! Let me know if you need an invitation made! :D

Join Us, Details, and Reply cards

Piles of invitations

Packaging

Programs
I'm not gonna lie, I wish I would have done a little more with the programs. I was crunched for time and rushed through this process. This was the last project to design on my list and I think I was just ready to get it over with. I wish I would have included a little more info. Oh well, too late now! Hopefully our guests enjoyed them, regardless.

Wedding Programs

Flower Confetti Cones
We wanted to be showered with rose petals as we exited the church but I needed a cute way to approach the idea. I had plenty of yellow dotted paper left over from the invitations so I was able to use that to make my flower cones. I then found a cute little message to instruct our guests on what to do. I think they came out well!

Confetti Cones! Photo Credit: Jeremy Singleton :)

Reception Centerpieces

I originally wanted to have flowers as our centerpieces but those are quite the expense! To save on some money I decided to grab my parents old Encyclopedias, yearbooks, and hardbacks and put them to good use! We bought tons and tons of yellow wrapping paper (various patterns and colors) and thanks to Sairy, Reuben, and Shannon, we were able to wrap them all to place in the center of the tables! To top off the books, we used picture frames that had facts and pictures of us throughout our relationship. It was fun mingling with our guests to see what table they landed at.

Band Geeks :)

The Beast!!!!!

It's Great to be a Mountaineer!

Crossword Puzzle

We didn't want our guests bored while we took our pictures during cocktail hour. What better way to entertain them than with a crossword puzzle all about us?! It was also used as an ice breaker so those who didn't know one another could help each other out on answers they didn't know. It turned out to be a huge success and it was fun creating!

Apollo Anton Oh No Creed Singleton is this type of breed.

Click to enlarge and take a stab at it!

All You Need is Love (and soda)

Jeremy and I LOVE soda. We LOVE soda in a glass bottle even more. Figuring out our wedding favor was easy. It took some thinking to do this inexpensively. We made it work though! Our original idea was to have Jones Soda (one of our favorite brands) and create our own label with our picture. That was going to be a little out of our price range. IBC soda comes in 2nd on our list. It was significantly cheaper than Jones Soda but we had to Jeremy/Ashafy the product. I was searching online and found some inspiration. I saw the lyrics "All You Need is Love" and decided to add (and soda). Jeremy busted out his drawing skills once again, and there you have it, an easy DIY wedding favor! A lot of hole punching and cutting but I'd say it was worth it :)

Wedding Favors! Photo Credit: Themba Imagery

Close up!

Cake Topper

I was originally going to buy this cake topper but Jeremy came to the rescue and proved that he can draw WAY better. These drawings of us are some of my favorite.  I printed the images on regular paper and then glued them to chip board. I then placed rods so the topper could stand in the cake. A big thanks goes out to Sairy who helped me cut chip board so that our topper had support. Without her, it would have been a jagged mess. 

Weddubg Cake Topper! Photo Credit: Themba Imagery

Guest Book

I wanted a guest book that was unique and different. I was searching Etsy and I found this cute little idea. Thank goodness Jeremy can draw! He broke out his skills again and we were able to create this on our own. Once I had the drawing complete, I took it to Kinko's where they enlarged the artwork and put it on poster board. All that was left to do was cut out circles and our guests did the rest! Now we get to pass by the love of our guests left us every morning, afternoon and evening :)

Guest Book Before

Guest Book After :D

Thank You
Does this image below look familiar? I was able to use our cake topper art and incorporate it into our Thank You cards. This is stamped on the back. I thought it added the perfect touch and completed the cards juuuuust right.

Thank You!

There you have it folks! Our DIY wedding. My graphic design skills and Jeremy's drawing ability sure did come in handy to make these projects a success. I had a blast making everything and it made the day that more intimate.

Local Flava!

As many of you know, this is the summer of local eating! We really want to focus on the "mom and pop" restaurants that have been in the area for years upon years. So a couple weekends ago, it was time to continue pleasing our stomachs at Greg's BBQ in Matthews, NC.

First of all, I didn't realize how close Greg's BBQ was to our house. Literally 6-10 minutes away, so getting there wasn't a problem. We found this local spot by using the Urban Spoon App on my iPhone. After many "shakes" Greg's BBQ was the winning decision.

First impression, it's a small building (actually the end unit in a small shopping center), and walking in, you get the feel this place has a lot of "regulars". One thing I definitely noticed was there weren't any black people. Any time you're the only "something" in a situation (only male, female, short person, America, etc.) you notice fairly quickly. Anyway, there wasn't a threatening feeling, but you could feel some of the glances coming our way as we walked to our table. We WERE the only non-white, under 40 people in the entire place, so I guess if I were them, I'd take a glance or two as well. On to the food...

They had a simple menu which is a good thing for me. I like options, but I want you to tell me what you're good at and let me eat it. Also, you can tell by the graphics/clip art on the menu that this is an older place.

Greg's BBQ: Matthew's, NC

There were plenty of choices, but not overwhelming to the point where I couldn't decide. Obviously it was an American restaurant, but they had some gyros and a couple of Italian food choices. So with all of the choices available, I kept it pretty standard. There's BBQ in the restaurant's title, so I ordered BBQ.

It was a good looking plate. I had a nice portion of BBQ with the standard sides - fries, baked beans and hush puppies. Honestly, the sides (which is what I always look forward to eating) weren't anything to rave about. Everything was good, but that was about it. When I ate the hush puppies, it really just made me want to learn how to make good hush puppies myself. I guess, when I immediately feel like I could make it, I'm not too impressed. Just on the food, I'd grade it a 'C'. It was all pretty average. Not bad, not great. Right in the middle. Very affordable, which is ALWAYS good.

BBQ, baked beans, and fries.

Asha's Meal: Fish, shrimp, and french fries

(Hint: Greg's BBQ inspired me to do a little DIY project. Blog will come later.)

So there you have it. Greg's BBQ - worth a visit, you won't break the bank, but you won't be blown away either. If you try it, let me know what you think. I had the BBQ plate, but there's a chance they have something fantastic on the menu I don't know about. So let me know!