.::|TheDish|::.

DIY Wedding Project #1: Saplings Bring Nature Indoors

As I mentioned in my last post, this is the first of a few upcoming posts that will shed color on some of the personal touches that went into my nuptials.

When holding a outdoor wedding in New England, I think a tent is an imperative due to the erratic and unpredictable weather; you absolutely need a back-up plan. It’s worth focusing and investing time during your planning on some personal touches to add to the tent – to dress it up – as you may just be holding all the day’s events under that one roof. By way of some miracle, it really never rained on our wedding day despite a threatening forecast – a slight sprinkle that lasted a few minutes before the reception was it – but we were definitely prepped for that everything-in-the-tent back-up plan.

A wedding tent is really what you make of it. Without some thought, attention and beautification, it can be rather stale and uninviting. So one of our primary missions was to brainstorm ways to creatively outfit the tent with some individual touches that seamlessly carry the garden and nature theme indoors. We knew we had a lot of room to work with, as the tent was dual peeked with an impressive soaring ceiling.

My mom and I came up with a fun way to tie in the tent décor with the natural wooded surroundings. We headed into the woods and hand selected some old saplings that had fallen; the particular two we chose were quite tall – about 15-20 feet – with a thin trunk diameter, and balanced long branches. We dragged the trees out of the woods and up to the house by way of my mom’s roomy 1999 Volvo trunk, where we started our project. Here's the final result, and below it, the steps we took to get there.

1. We clipped off any remaining leaves on the branches using garden clippers (note to nature lovers, these trees were dead, so we were giving them new life!).
2. Picked up a dozen or so silk branches with blossoms, per tree, and a dozen or so sets of sill leaves, per tree, at Michaels’ craft store.
3. Using wreath wire (that skinny green wire that comes in spools) we attached the leaves and the flowers to the bare saplings by winding the wire around the stems. We left the branches a little sparse, as these were intended to be young trees just blossoming.
4. We attached the trees with bailing twine at the base of the thin trunk to the large poles that were securing the tent; we tried zip ties first, but the poles were too wide, but the twine worked just fine.
5. We then added some decorative tulle to the base of the trees where the twine held the tree in place; the tulle hung down, soft like a bridal veil, and covered up the base of the tree and the securing twine
6. Large canister lights for illuminating the tent were wired about half-way up the pole; we ensured the trees were not interfering with the light (it get’s pretty hot) but also positioned the branches above the lights to illuminate the trees from below.

The trees were a total hit with the guests, and pretty simple to assemble. I still have them, and really don't plan to use them again, so shoot me a note if you are interested in them for your big day!

Our Wedding Projects: All the Little Details

Finally now that our wedding is over, I have the time to share some of the fun little details of our big day. If you know me, you know that I can't take any type of planning nonchalantly; I am always pushing the limits, seeking inspiration from my surroundings and digging for something a little more creative and innovative, that may not have been done. Yes, admittedly sometimes I bite off a little more than I should, but usually it’s worth it. So, naturally my approach didn’t change when it came to planning my wedding.

I am going to put together a few posts highlighting some of the fun things that I did to add some personalization to our big day; but, first I’ll explain a bit about our broader approach, the venue, and our theme, so you can see why we chose to do what we did.

We elected to get married on my parent’s property in Central Massachusetts for a few reasons, mainly because it’s symbolic of many things that are important to us both: family, hard work, passion, nature, modesty, and love. It’s a farm that was passed on from my grandparents to my parents, and has since been transformed from a heavily wooded and rustic area into a gardener’s and nature lover’s paradise, all with my parent’s dedicated and adept own hands.

Our decision to apply a garden and nature theme to our wedding festivities was a natural and harmonious fit with the surroundings. I chose a few do-it-yourself projects that would carry this theme throughout various elements of the day, though careful to keep a natural flow – much like the environment – and not force the theme.

The next few posts to come will detail the DIY projects that we tackled with some step-by-step instructions on how you can do the same. Feel free to comment or email me with any specific questions or thoughts.

Enjoy!

Ben Feller Ledes the Night

After diligently serving as the Associated Press White House Correspondent for two plus years, Mike's close childhood friend, Ben Feller, asked the lede (yes, that's the correct spelling!) question during Obama's Healthcare Reform conference tonight. Mike's been religiously watching every press conference hoping to see his bud on t.v. and alas, the day has come. Here's proof on the front page of NYT.com:

My Dream Wine Cellar

My husband and have been dabbling in architecture books lately (thanks to the lovely wedding gifts from his friend Grey), in preparation for the day that we build our dream home. There may be more of an emphasis on dream than reality in this particular post, but building a home in the somewhat near future is an aspiration of ours. So I was jazzed when a colleague of mine shared a link to this amazing nugget of superior architectural beauty. Check out this wine cellar, from Spiral Cellars:

What I love about this in particular is the simplicity of the design on the exterior; here an unadorned glass door in the floor opens to reveal a descending spiral staircase lined with shelf after shelf of your cherished wines. An elaborate temperature controlling systems ensures that the cellar remains at a constant temperature, a critical policy in wine storage.

The entryway to your secreted vintage vault can be even more discrete, as these photos illustrate:


I am envisioning a wine tasting room in my dream home, with the simple lines of slate and wood, and one of these covert cellar operations built into the smooth floor boards. Need to kick that money saving process (and perhaps lottery playing!) into full gear I suppose!

[Images courtesy of dornob.com]

I'm Back... & Honeymoon Pics

It's been a while – a loooong while – since I have posted, but all with good reason: I am officially a Mrs. (Mazzini)! Craziness. It's been probably the most taxing few months of my life, but the result was literally my fairytale wedding; more on that later, when I have all the digital copies of the photos and can recap. In the interim, I'll skip ahead; here's our photos from our Greek Honeymoon, by far the most amazing trip of our lives. Enjoy!