~ homemade: linen and lace details ~

I can't believe that this is the last Thursday of 2010!  Can anyone tell me where the year went?  Seriously, it went from April when my nephew was born to December in the blink of an eye.  Don't you remember as a kid days, weeks and months seemed so long?  Yet, as an adult they fly by.  If anyone can tell me how to slow down time, I would LOVE to hear it!

So for this final Thursday in 2010 I am posting the final pictures from my linen and lace photo shoot - some other details not covered in my previous post.  First up is the invitation...

Using a vintage linen I ironed on the invitation using a transfer.  The invitations were placed in a box with book page strips and tied with a book page and lace.  I love it when invitations aren't in an envelope.  I know, extra postage...but sometimes it is just worth it.  I know I would love to receive the box above in the mail.  Wouldn't you?  Up next is the lounge area...

The umbrella was an antique that was nothing but the frame.  A vintage linen round tablecloth I had fit perfectly over it.  To add some detail to it, I trimmed it in vintage lace and added a cute topper.

The cot is an old green army one that I covered with a vintage white tablecloth and topped it with a vintage lace tablecloth. 

It wouldn't be a wedding without some bubbly and some soft music.  The radio that you see below was Aunt Millie's first anniversary wedding present.

Next is the dance area...

A vintage radio, a roll of player piano music, a tiara, an apothecary jar and my great-grandfathers squeezebox accoridion (yes, he used to play it) all bring together a small dance area.  And two more pictures to pull it all together...

I hope you enjoyed this homemade photo shoot.  It was my first one, and I can tell how much my photography skills have improved.  So glad I never used it...as it was the perfect way to end the year!  Looking forward to 2011 and lots more homemade posts for you.  Thank you for following along with this one!

~ Ciao

...concept, design, styling and photography all by luna and chloe weddings

~ homemade: linen and lace table decor ~

Happy Thursday loves!  Can you believe Christmas is on Saturday - eek.  I'm still shopping for presents, and spent almost 3 hours last night wrapping the ones we have.  I guess that is what happens when you go on vacation right before the holidays...you play catch up when you get back!  If I ever go on vacation before Christmas again I am going to make sure that the majority of my shopping is done before I go.  Good strategy I think!  I hope everyone is already done with all their shopping and getting to spend some time just enjoying the holiday season.

Anyway, I have the next part in my linen and lace photo shoot for you today!  This week it is the table decor.  Since vintage was my main theme - I really tried to look at the table from that perspective.  So here it is...

Don't you just love Queen Anne's Lace?  I do...can't you tell?  In the picture above you can see the escort area that I featured a couple weeks ago.  Also you might remember, I mentioned that each table was a chapter...well you can see in the picture below that the table was marked in just that way...

As I was thinking about vintage era's, and the time that my Great Aunt Millie grew up in...it dawned on me that a big thing back then was dance cards.  So I thought - why not set at each place setting for the ladies a dance card, and for the man a boutonniere, of course!

So from the left over chapter's in the book I made a dance card for the ladies...

I ran a piece of vintage lace down the side, and painted golf sized pencils white.  Yes, I painted them!  The gold just didn't go, and I couldn't find white ones at the time.  Inside I printed on cream colored construction paper (the only paper that I sure for this whole shoot that wasn't from the vintage book I used...remember I only used one book for this whole shoot) numbers with lines that the ladies could write who they danced with for each song.

And of course I had to have a happily ever after at the end!

For the boutonniere's I used a couple small pieces of Queen Anne's Lace and wrapped the stem with a vintage book page strip.

I have to tell you that the glasses you see in this shoot are Aunt Millie's.  Believe it or not - they were her grandma's when she got married over 100 years ago!  I couldn't believe she offered me them when I told her about the shoot I was going to do.  Let me tell you - I handled them with extreme care!

I adorned the glasses with a sprig of mint, and a stir stick made with a scalloped circle punch.  And below you can see one of my sets of vintage butter plates that I used to hold salt and pepper.  Also I lined some vintage book pages down the center of the table.

The below picture isn't that great...but it does show you the mini vintage mold that I used at each place setting.  (I also used a larger mold on my raffle table that I showed last week.)  I filled each with some Queen Anne's Lace, and a stick that had a cute line from the book.

Another detail I wanted to point out were mason jars that I used.  They actually said Good House Keepers on them - so perfect with my whole theme and the vintage drying rack escort area and the vintage ironing board that I used for the dessert table.

A couple more shots for you...

I adore my old, beat up red bench that I got for free.  It brought just a little extra color to the table.  So there you have it my dears - my vintage linen and lace table decor.  Remember next week I have some other details to share with you...which is perfect as it will be the last part of my photo shoot and the end of the year! 

~ Ciao

...concept, design, styling & photography all by Luna and Chloe Weddings

~ a vintage holiday on a realistic wedding ~

My "Vintage Holiday" photo shoot is featured on Claire's fabulous and inspiring blog, A Realistic Wedding today.  I was estatic when Claire asked me to take part in her idea! What idea is that you ask?  Well in Claire's own words:

"At the end of October, after seeing an endless series of AMAZING holiday photo shoots, I got an idea. A big idea that I knew I needed help to execute. That’s where Sofia & Andre from Brancoprata and Kristi from Luna and Chloe Weddings came in. My idea? Why, the very namesake of this article. I had an idea to create a very merry and magical Christmas photo shoot and I wanted Sofia & Kristi to take a spin at creating two gorgeous, but different, recreations of this simple and broad idea. I gave them a few suggestions to get them started then let the artists free to create what is, surely, the most gorgeous Christmas shoots ever."

Claire has ALWAYS been so supportive of me and my work, that I really wanted to make her proud. Golly, I hope I did ;-) So come over and have a look-see at my "Vintage Holiday" photo shoot.

Thank you bunches Claire for this amazing opportunity.  Mwah!

~ Ciao

...image via a realistic wedding

~ homemade: drawer pulls part III ~

Okay, here is the last and final post in this little homemade drawer pull series!  I have just a couple of other options for you.  For a field or farm event, the drawer pulls are being used as place cards.  I spray painted the pulls white and then painted the centers in chalkboard paint...

The goat cards are a downloadable template from Pottery Barn.  You can find them here.  I just thought they were cute, and something different!  Plus I added a bonus for you with knobs...used as feet on the slate...

You can also use them to hold signs, flags, escort cards or whatever...just put a stick in them!

For a wine country, field, rustic event I thought these drawer pulls were quite cute just as details...nothing other than to look pretty!  Can you tell I started to run out of steam?  This is the fourth photo shoot I did...

And finally, the last option is perfect for the beach.  The drawer pulls acts as a holder here - for flowers, grass...or in this instance spanish moss, which I just love to use for beach events...

Just shake out the spanish moss so that all the loose pieces fall out, and then add a touch of hot glue to the back to hold in place.  I realized that even though I only live about an hour from the beach, I don't really have any beach type of decor...hmmmm I'll have to work on that!

Hope you enjoyed all this inspiration!  There are so many ways to use drawer pulls...maybe this will inspire you to use them in another way.  And as always they are great escort cards...but I promised I wouldn't do that again this week...but I did have to mention! 

~ Ciao

...photography by me

~ inspired by: homemade tea tags part II ~

I promise this is the last one today!  But since I was so inspired by the tea tag place cards in my earlier post today...I had to do a mini tabletop to give you some additional ideas and inspiration!  Can you tell I L-O-V-E my new camera...creating excuses to use it!!!  Anyhoo, back to the bridesmaid brunch tabletop decor...

Simple, easy and something you can create!  Below I placed lemon wedges in tea bags, in case people like lemon with their tea...they could either squeeze the juice into their tea without seeds falling in or just place in their tea to steep. 

Above...I included 2 vintage ink pots to use as decoration, and placed some roses from my front yard in...so pretty.  Also, I included vintage butter plates for the used tea or lemon bags.  And below is a closeup of the place card I made with a honey stick...

I also used the homemade tea tags for signs...

And I just placed some tea in brown paper bags, along with some tea bags and honey sticks so bridesmaids could help themselves.   

My pretty roses from the front yard...

Finally, a cute little favor (note:  not their gift) for the bridesmaids to take home...

A lovely, homemade bridesmaid brunch, don't you think? Oh, what fun!  Tea anyone? 

~ Ciao


...photography by me

~ inspired by: homemade tea tags part I ~

So in my previous post below, I showed you how to make homemade tea tags...now I will show you some fun and creative ways to use them as place cards! 

I was thinking a bridesmaids brunch would be the perfect spot to use them...and with that in mind I'm showing you not one but six different ways you could use them!  You know me...I like lots of options, and I thought you would too. So lets start shall we?  The first option is a tag, a piece of fabric and a mini clothespin...

Second is a piece of fabric, and the tag curled inside the cup...

Third is a tag inside a tea bag and some cooking string...

Fourth option includes a favor, and has a tag inside a piece of tea bag attached to a mesh ball tea infuser inside the cup...

Fifth option includes a favor also...with a tag attached to a tea straining spoon using cooking string...

The sixth and final option is with a favor as well...and is a handled mesh ball tea infuser with a tag in a tea bag and some cooking string...

And I thought it would be a nice visual to see all 6 of them together...so here you are...

So my dears, what do you think?  Which option is your fave?  Can't wait to hear from you!

Stay tuned for part II - tabletop decor coming up next...

~ Ciao

...photography by me