DIY Practice

Hello again :)

As you can see, I haven't had a lot to talk about since my last post because we haven't made much progress with the wedding planning.

Although this post isn't directly related to our wedding, I thought I would share a cute DIY project that I did for my friend Katie's birthday. Our wedding will be as much DIY as possible since we are trying to save money. So this project is similar to something I would like to have at my wedding and maybe you could use as well! Here is my inspiration for this project.

Before I tell you what I made for Katie, I need to first tell you that we are both obsessed with Pinterest. We have seen this project in various forms on Pinterest for months now, so I thought I would FINALLY do a project that I pinned! This is a two-tier organizer that could be used for makeup, jewelry, cupcakes--anything! In this case I used it to hold her birthday cupcakes and gifted it as a jewelry organizer (although it is really more of a jewelry display, as it offers little organization, lol).

Things you will need:
2 plates (one larger than the other)
Candle stick holder (or anything you want to use to hold one plate on top of the other-my inspiration used a soup can)
Acrylic paint & paint brush
Hot glue gun

Step One
Pick your plates. I looked around at my local Goodwill trying to find plates that had a fun pattern on them. Of course I couldn't find anything I liked so I headed to Dollar Tree. The plates I found were just glass with a textured pattern on the bottom side. I got my candle stick holder from here as well. I just loved the look of this instead of a can, but it's your choice!

(I got ahead of myself and glued the candlestick on the large plate before I decided to paint the plates and take pictures!)

Step Two 
Pick your paint! I already had a ton of acrylic paint that I have collected from doing various DIY and school projects. You can get a small bottle of acrylic paint at Walmart for less that $1 each. I chose two different shades of coral, because that's Katie's favorite color. (If you aren't painting your plates you can skip to step five!)

Step Three
Paint your plates! I painted the bottom side of the plates to avoid scratching the paint when it's being used and I wanted it to remain glossy. If you are artistic, you can paint whatever kind of design you want on there. I am not an artist so I decided to paint the top a lighter coral and the larger plate a darker shade. I gave each plate 4 or 5 coats of paint, but you can make this decision based on how vibrant you want the color to be.

Step Four
Bake your plates. This part kind of scared me because I really had no idea how these plates would hold up in the oven since they're from Dollar Tree. Pinterest says that you should:
1. Place you plates in a cool oven.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. Once preheated, bake for 30 minutes.
4. Turn the oven off and let the plates sit in the oven until it cools off.
I'm not sure if it was the plates that I had or what, but the oven was starting to get a little smokey about 10 minutes into the process so I lowered the temperature to 250 degrees because I was afraid of what might happen!! Apparently baking the plates helps set the acrylic paint and makes it stay on there. I can't say if it does this or not because I was too afraid to test it and then have to repaint it if it wiped off.

Step Five
After your plates have cooled, you can finally start assembling your tiers! I didn't take a picture of the hot gluing process, oops. Use your hot glue gun on the bottom of the candle stick holder (or whatever you're using as a separator). Place this in the center of your larger plate and press down. Give it a few minutes to set up so it doesn't slide around. Hot glue the top rim of the candle stick holder and place the small plate on top of that!

It's as simple as that! Enjoy :)

Here's a picture with the cupcakes on it..

and with her jewelry on it..

I love how this project turned out! I would definitely use something as simple as this at my wedding and I can't wait to start doing all of the DIY projects!!

If you want to follow me on Pinterest, click here :)

My First Attempt at Blogging

     As you can gather from the title of this post, this is the first time I've ever created a blog! I am not claiming that my blog will be interesting, but it will be my attempt at sharing my journey through being newly engaged, planning a wedding, and all of the excitement and stress that come with those things. I hope to keep friends and family updated with what is going on as well as get helpful feedback since this is the first wedding I have ever had an opportunity to plan.

So now let me catch you up on what's been going on...

     Adam and I have been dating since July 11, 2007! For those of you who don't want to add it up in your head.. that is almost 5 1/2 years! We met in high school and have been inseparable ever since. I love him more than anything and I am happy to say he feels the same ;) He is my best friend and better half and I couldn't have asked for a better friend/boyfriend/fiance/future husband!! We have always known that we would get married one day, but I was completely surprised when he got down on one knee on November 3, 2012! Here's a picture of how surprised I was...

My face.... Lol.

     So anyway, we are currently TRYING to begin the long process of wedding planning. We want an outdoor wedding and reception with beautiful lights and candles everywhere! That's about as far as we've gotten! I have called a few different places, but they have all been WAY too expensive for our budget. $3,500 just doesn't sound reasonable to me for a place to get married. Today we went to Coonskin Park and looked at a beautiful place by the river that has an open field and a large shelter with a full kitchen! The price is extremely low which makes it even more appealing. The only downfalls to this location are: 1. There is a mini-playground right beside the shelter. I know this shouldn't be a big deal, but it's so ugly!!! 2. The park closes at 10 pm and we want an evening/night wedding.

If anyone has any suggestions, feel free to leave a comment :)

As I said, I am not a blogger and I really have no idea what I'm even doing. I hope that I can figure everything out so people can actually read this thing. Wish me luck!

xox