Photos / Wedding

This past weekend, Josh and I celebrated our one year anniversary! We can't believe how quickly this past year has gone by. It feels just like yesterday we were engaged! 2013 so far has been crazy for the both of us - but we've enjoyed every single minute of it and can't wait for what year two has in store for us! We spent the evening of our anniversary going through all of our favorite photos, sampling a few bites of our year-old wedding cake (yum?), and reflecting back on the awesomeness that was our wedding day.

Bleeding Purple

Our alma matter is very important to Josh and I, being as how we both met at and graduated from James Madison University. There was no doubt in our minds that we wanted to somehow highlight our love and deep ties to JMU at our wedding. And what better way to do so then by having the JMU Road Dawg make an appearance!

The JMU Road Dawg is a traveling statue that has been to hundreds of family get togethers, weddings, and trips all throughout the country. Then I found out the worst news ever (at least at that moment in time): the Road Dawg had already been booked for the weekend of our wedding! I am pretty sure I was depressed for a few days, but knew we could find other ways to show off our purple and gold pride.

I began searching around until I found the most perfect JMU Duke Dog cake topper. Ever. I emailed Josh right away; of course, his response was something along the lines of "I am at work. I will look at it tonight." After he saw it, I knew he immediately had a "We need to have that" feeling. It was a little on the pricier end of what I ever pictured myself spending on a cake topper (I don't even think I was planning to have a cake topper now that I think of it), but it was definitely worth it. After finding this, we decided that we wanted our cake table to be JMU-themed and also Vega-themed.

JMU Duuukes.

Photo wood blocks and an "All You Need Is Love...And A Dog" sign.

My easy DIY paper bunting and cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake.

If you're looking to do a similar cake topper for your wedding, the Etsy shop that I purchased mine from has every college and university you can think of. And if you don't see it, they can custom make one for you. Just keep in mind that you need to place your order at least 2-3 months in advance of when you'd want to receive it. You can customize just about everything, too - the groom's suit, wedding flowers, wedding dress color, accessories, etc. I paid extra to also have the base painted white, as normally it would be a natural wood color.

Mr. and Mrs. Duke Dog on top of our simple two-tiered wedding cake.

Wooden crates, cake stands, and white hydrangeas in mason jars for our cake table.

And to top it all off - Josh's brother secretly booked the actual JMU Duke Dog mascot to make a guest appearance at our wedding. We had no idea and we were both so surprised (and I am impossible to surprise). Definitely one of the most memorable moments from our wedding!

JMU alumni!

DIY Small Paper Bunting

I wanted to make a small paper bunting to hang on my card basket. I've made paper buntings similar to this before and it's so easy, you'll want to make them all the time! They're even perfect for gift baskets for family and friends, and are relatively inexpensive - you can probably just use supplies that you already have at home.

And what's great is that you don't even need a fancy program to make this - I just used Microsoft Word, inserted a triangle shape, and added letters using a font that matched my wedding theme. You could even just cut out your triangle shapes and use letter stickers if you didn't have a printer.

Supplies
Card stock, scissors, paper cutter, string or twine, glue gun (or regular glue would work)

Steps

1. Design your bunting.
2. Print onto card stock. I used Staples Card Stock, which I also ended up using for my programs.
3. Cut out the individual pieces. I used the paper cutter just so that the edges were all straight, but regular scissors should do the trick.
4. Spell or space out the order of the pieces.
5. Hot glue the pieces onto the twine.
6. Attach as desired to your card box or basket.

I usually won’t cut the twine until my bunting is done, just so that the length of the twine is equal on both ends. Also, for the triangle shape I used when designing in Word, I changed the border color to be a very faint gray, that way it wasn’t so heavy and black when it was printed. I usually prefer to print the outlines on the back of the card stock (so that you never see it), but it’s usually a lot easier to do that with larger square shapes.

DIY Framed Burlap Monogram

This DIY framed monogram basically set the entire theme for my rustic wedding. It was the first “official” wedding decor that I made after we had set a wedding date - and I loved the way it turned out! I couldn’t find a frame size that I liked, so I ended up buying a black diploma frame from Home Goods and spray painted it white. The only downfall to that option was that the diploma frame didn’t have a built-in stand because it was meant to hang on the wall, so I had to look for a stand to hold this up the day before the wedding!

The inspiration for this came from Love Of Family & Home - and this was all over Pinterest, too. I purchased the burlap fabric, wood letter, and paint from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts. I basically followed each step exactly how it’s listed in that post, except I didn’t use the same paint colors (something similar though).

Supplies
Frame, burlap, wooden letter, paint, paintbrush, hot glue gun, scissors

Steps

1. Paint the letter as desired (I followed the instructions above).
2. Take apart the frame and cover the frame board with the burlap.
3. Hot glue the burlap to the frame board. I basically pretended as if I was gift wrapping the board, and glued the burlap to the back of the board.
4. Put the frame back together (without the glass).
5. Place the letter as desired in the center of the frame.
6. Hot glue the letter onto the burlap.